CH23 - Deja vu?

[Lyon's POV]

We had stopped in an alleyway after half an hour of driving away from my house but we only began driving again after around 7 in the morning since we needed to move all the duffle bags into the trunk of the car and eat breakfast after which just consisted of loaves of bread since I didn't want to put more dents into the supply of canned goods.

This car should have more than enough to at least get us a quarter of the way to Chisato's house. It should actually be more but lowering our expectations tend to be the best way to avoid falling into despair after being faced with a reality we'd rather avoid.

I wasn't the one driving but I was more than sure that we had made more than a few detours already which makes a bit of sense I guess considering the more we drove toward Chisato's house, the more we'd get closer to the roads at the edge of the residential layer before the river. Such detours were definitely fewer in frequency compared to how much we had taken to get from Ren's apartment to my home though.

'The people who were smart enough probably used the side roads instead of the central ones so there are bound to be a few blocked streets once we get closer to the riverside.' I think to myself while looking outside the window, I turn my attention back to Alyssa who had been staying close to the door beside her.

She had already re-engaged the safety but since then she has had her eyes on the gun, pointing it at the ceiling without moving the entire time. I noticed her absent eyes, devoid of any feeling while both of her hands were on the gun's barrel. I take one of her hands, grasping it tightly as it manages to garner her attention while she looks at me.

"You said I could lean on your shoulders when I needed to, I think it's about time that I said the same to you, Alyssa." I whispered to her before moving closer to the point that I was right beside her. Her spatial awareness came back alongside small traces of emotion in her eyes. She pushed her head into my shoulder in an attempt to find comfort from my warmth while I pulled her closer into a side hug to further accommodate her.

I stay like this for a few minutes before I felt light vibrations coming from the area of my hoodie that Alyssa had chosen to settle her head in, she had probably fallen asleep due to stress so I carefully take the gun away from her hands before placing it close to the door. I look to my front, finding nothing but a few abandoned cars in random locations on the road before glaring at the rearview mirror that Ren and Chisato were using to spy on us

Chisato turns her eyes back to the road while Ren returns his full attention to driving us safely around the abandoned cars, making sure to not accidentally crash into the ones that were left right in the middle of the road. Their grins don't disappear as this happens though so I just sigh in resignation, choosing to disregard their expressions as I slightly move to let Alyssa's head lay on my lap instead.

"Chisato, go check how much fuel we have left and tell me how far it'll take us." I tell Chisato, patting Alyssa's head to lull her back to sleep since my movement earlier had slightly disturbed her. Her current reaction was quite normal, rather she was actually taking it quite well so far considering how she wasn't screaming or breaking down in tears.

'You really were the faster one to adapt to a situation between us huh Alyssa?' I think to myself as my thoughts wander back to my memories of the original timeline. She was reacting the same way, never breaking down while masking her true emotions with an emotionless gaze. Rarely did anyone else but I ever notice the small changes to her mood, but that was a skill I only managed to pick up a month into our relationship.

"Lyon, are you even listening to me?" A voice asks, taking my attention away from memories of the past and bringing my conscience to the present. I look in front of me, finding Chisato staring at me curiously while Ren kept his eyes on the road we were driving on. I asked her to repeat whatever she was previously saying which caused her to release a troubled sigh before recounting her findings.

"I said that we should have about enough fuel to reach halfway to my house, less so if we keep having to make more detours which seems to have been the case so far." She tells me before looking straight at me as she awaited my reply, one which I contemplate for a few seconds before asking another question.

"Are there any gas stations near our current location by any chance?" I asked her, we didn't bother going to any fuel stations while we were going to my house since I was unfamiliar with the area but that hopefully isn't the case here with Chisato. Looking for a fuel station in our previous situation of just depending on somehow finding a familiar landmark to learn of our position would only expend more fuel without even giving us the guarantee that we'd find what we were looking for.

"I think I know one, but isn't the chances of it still having fuel quite low?" She asks me a great question, there probably won't be a lot in the coming days but there should still be a bit of fuel inside those pumps this early on into the apocalypse. It'd be even greater if it was one of those self-serving gas stations since I still had my wallet that kept what remained of my spending budget for supplies after all.

"We might as well check it out, I'd rather not walk all the way from your house to the academy. Gas stations usually have a convenience store too but I doubt the possibility that it hasn't been raided yet." I tell them, earning a nod from Chisato before she began telling Ren which road to take.

With the conversation going silent, I turned my attention back to Alyssa who had yet to move from her initial position. Carefully making sure that there wasn't anything that would disturb her well-needed rest as I stared through the window, looking through its seemingly thin material and finding nothing but traces of a street once filled with human activity.

~2 hours later~

"We're here." Chisato tells everyone as she stretched her arms inside the vehicle. The car stopped right beside the gas pump, it had three pumps of different colors. One of the said pumps was left abandoned on the ground, no sign of when it was used could be seen as there weren't any marks of dried gasoline on the ground.

I shake Alyssa awake, taking a few seconds for her to rise from my lap before scratching her eyes to fully wake herself up. She looks outside the window, confused as to why we were in a gas station since I had not made any mention of this portion of the plan to her in the past.

"The car needs more gas, we only had enough for about halfway to Chisato's house so we used the remainder to find a gas station instead." I tell Alyssa who nods to my words, eyeing the shotgun that I had left beside the door. I wasn't sure if she still wanted to use the gun but she already had it in her hands before I could even offer to take it away.

She flicks the safety of the shotgun back off before pushing the barrel breech lever to the side, putting one hand on the barrel and pushing it down so that the break-action would open. She raises the break-action which causes two of the used shells that had already cooled down during our car ride to fall off.

She then takes two unused shells from the fanny pack she was wearing and shoves them in before closing the gun, an audible click meant to signal that the gun was ready to be fired again ringing out. All of this was done in a matter of a few seconds while I just stared at her precise movements the entire time, a feeling of pride rising inside me for some reason.

"Here, I should still have about 9,000 or so yen, use it to refill the fuel tank. I and Alyssa will guard the perimeter while Chisato stays close to the car." I call out to Ren before throwing my wallet at him as I left the car with Alyssa. A slight breeze hit me right in the face as I stood up and looked around the area we were in.

'We can loot the convenience store for more scraps but I doubt we'd find anything worth our while considering how the entrance and the glass wall of the store itself are in shards.' I think to myself while looking at the store while Ren, Chisato, and Alyssa began doing their tasks.

I stood close to the back of the car while Alyssa positioned herself near the front end of the car. Ren, in turn, was standing in front of a touch screen with shiny lights coming from the virtual options that it presented him. He puts his hand in front of it and taps it a few times before walking toward one of the pumps.

I turn my attention elsewhere, trusting him in his ability to do the simple task while I turned my attention back to my supposed task. A few seconds pass and the sound of an incoming car reaches us, prompting us to look in the direction of the road we were going to take after we refueled the car.

The source of that noise reveals itself as a black 4x4 SUV which drives up the gas stations, abruptly stopping a few meters away from us as the driver probably noticed that they weren't alone. I and Alyssa point our guns at the car while Chisato and Ren, in turn, just eye it without moving from where they stood as worried expressions began appearing on their faces

The engine of the car turns off before the two front car doors open. The first one to leave was a man with dark short gray hair and light blue eyes who wore a black button-down long sleeve shirt that was accompanied by equally black pants and shoes. He had both hands raised while sporting a calm and friendly smile, an obvious attempt at telling us that they meant no harm.

The second one to leave the car was another man who had dark hair and maroon-colored eyes while sporting black pants, shoes, and a jacket that covered a white undershirt beneath it. The undershirt, in turn, covered a blue shirt which made me inwardly chuckle while thinking of just how many layers of clothing the guy needed to wear. Those short chuckles are immediately halted though as I am reminded of the hypocrisy coming from just how many layers of clothing was I wearing too.

"We're not hostile, we just need some gas for our car and we'll be on our way." The stranger with gray hair tells us while looking at Alyssa since she was the closest one to them. Alyssa, in turn, doesn't reply as she opts to remain silent instead while pointing her gun at them as I moved closer to her.

"Go to my previous position, I'll handle talking with them." I whisper to Alyssa, receiving a nod of affirmation before she moved toward the rear end of the car, the spot that I was guarding before our sudden visitors decided to come by. I look at the two people who remained motionless with their hands raised to the sky the entire time.

"Do a 360-degree rotation with your hands still raised." I order them with my rifle still pointed at the gray-haired man, the two comply and do two slow rotations before stopping to look at me again. "You don't seem to be carrying any weapons on you, surely you don't actually plan on punching one of those zombies to death, do you?"

"No, of course not. I and my little brother took a few kitchen knives with us before leaving our home but we lost or broke them along the way. We have a bow and a few arrows though, courtesies of my cousin who I picked up from the archery range." The gray-haired man explains while deferring to the brown-haired teenager that left the car with him.

"If he is your little brother then that must mean you have another person in your car, you wouldn't mind convincing that person to leave the car as well wouldn't you?" I "asked" the gray-haired man. The brown-haired teenager hesitantly looks at his older brother before going back to the car after receiving a nod of confirmation.

"You know this is a self-service gas station, right?" I asked the gray-haired man as a self-deprecating smile appears on his face after hearing my question. From that expression, I could guess that he either knew that and is lacking in funds or he was clueless as to the nature of this specific gas station.

"I was hoping that we'd be able to get some money from the convenience store to refuel... you wouldn't happen to have any extra funds we could have?" He asks, a bit of hope reappearing in his light blue eyes as he waits for my reply. I should have maybe 1000 yen left at least though I didn't really have any reason to help them.

"Why would I consider giving away an asset that might help me and my group in the futu-" I tell him only for my words to remain stuck in my throat as the brown-haired man came back to his previous position with two other figures following close behind him, one of which was carrying the bow that they had mentioned earlier.

The third figure was a young girl that seemed to be around the age of 8 judging from their height alone. She had waist-length dark brown hair that was kept in place with three red pegs, leaving only three strands of her hair on her forehead. She had big light violet eyes and wore a school uniform befitting of her perceived age. She was hugging onto the fourth figure tightly, possibly finding comfort in the fourth figure's presence at the moment.

Though the presence of the child slightly convinced me of helping them out a bit, the fourth figure was what truly made me pause in thought as a sense of deja vu came flooding into my brain. It was quite weird, she was a person I was sure I had never met, yet I felt as if I had seen her somewhere before. Maybe I had passed by her once during one of my walks, or maybe it was in a dream though that guess just brought up a whole can of worms.

The fourth figure carried a serious expression while gripping tightly on her bow, bravely holding onto a single arrow in a position ready to be aimed and fired with the same arm that carried her weapon of choice while the other was placed over the child's back. Her stern expression was accompanied by light blue eyes that seemed to throw daggers at me as the edges of her long white hair seemed to change from snow white to vanilla blond under the light of the sun.

She wore a black long-sleeved cloak that had two pouches to the sides of her waist alongside two zippers that ran up the sides of her chest which covered a white undershirt that had a black collar with golden thick lines that accentuated its pitch black design. She also wore short white pants that only reached halfway down her thighs and black knee socks that accompanied equally black shoes.

To top her weird attire that was apparently meant for archery was a black headband that formed a v shape in the middle. The only portion of her attire that seemed to remotely fit the information given to me by her gray-haired cousin was the dark blue quiver of arrows slung over her back.

I return her stern glare with an emotionless stare, taking the time to wander through my thoughts in an attempt to find the reason as to why this sense of deja vu came to me in the first place. The rest of our companions just watch in silence as we spend a good portion of at least two minutes just staring at each other.

"Ahem, so about that possible chance for fuel money." The gray-haired man coughs into one of his hands before raising it back up, an obvious attempt in trying to break the steadfast silence between our two groups. He manages to accomplish what he wanted to do as Ren moves closer to me before giving me my wallet back.

"I wasn't planning on helping but seeing as how you have a kid in your group... I'll give you whatever money I still have in my wallet and help you loot the convenience store for more funds. In exchange, I get to have the first pick over whatever supplies we manage to find and you can keep the money and whatever's left." I offer to the gray-haired man, the child that was hugging the woman turned to look at me after I briefly mentioned her.

"That's great, would it be fine if we were to lower our arms then? I don't know about my little brother but my arms are getting a bit stiff. My name is Higashi Tomoya by the way and my little brother's name is Hoga Tomoya." The gray-haired man now known as Higashi Tomoya jokes to us, prompting everyone else to introduce themselves. We learn that the child's name was Amaya Tomoya while they, in turn, learned of our names.

"Misako, Misako Tomoya." The white-haired woman answers after everyone turned their eyes to her since she was the last person to say her name. With everyone fully acquainted, we began to decide on who would join this short task of looting the convenience store. We decided to have me in the front, Misako in the middle, and Alyssa in the back just to make sure that Misako wouldn't try playing any tricks while I was facing away from her.

I was a bit hesitant to have Alyssa join us since that'd mean that both of the gunners in my group would be leaving the car but I acquiesced to her voluntary request after I patted down the two brothers for any weapons. I already observed their pockets for any slight bumps for hidden weapons earlier but this pat down served to fully convince me that they weren't carrying any with them.

"Just run away if it's too dangerous, we can just try to find some other way to get the money we need." Higashi tells us with a smile, I had already asked my own companions if they had any more money but Chisato only brings the bare minimum of an allowance that she needs to school, Ren already spent most of it on a heavy take-out meal for breakfast that day while Alyssa spent all of her money on cafeteria desserts...

"Lyon, I'm trusting you on protecting Misako alright? She wants to go to the other side of the river to find her mother but she decided to help us get to the evacuation center in Tohoku Iwate Academy first. I feel a bit guilty because of this but... we need as much help as we can find to get Amaya to safety at least." Higashi whispers to me while carrying a guilty expression before patting my back.

I look back at our two groups, Chisato was humoring Amaya's childishness by playing Rock paper scissors with her while Ren was talking with the two brothers, quietly chuckling over a conversation I was too far to hear. I continue walking toward the convenience store while tightly gripping my machete, Misako and Alyssa following close behind me.

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AN: Hey, this wasn't actually the original plan I wanted the mc and second wai- I mean the second group to meet since I at first planned to have them meet each other all peninsula style (The scene wherein those two kids suddenly just drive up and save the ex-soldier) but I felt this was going to be better and hopefully, less cliche. I've already updated the characters chapter and well, you should be able to piece together why only Amaya and Misako are in the main characters category kekw.

"Fun" Fact: I actually originally planned on using Nao Tomori as Misako but she's a high schooler and I didn't want to go to jail/use a character that looks too young for a depressing zombie fic like this as a waifu so I changed it to AN-94, my third waifu in Girls' Frontline. Just a bit of added tidbits, I actually had plans to make a fanfic of Girls Frontline as my second fic but I've decided to make an Arknights fic instead which I will begin uploading either after the third arc of this fic ends or when it begins (Kal'tsit best girl/old hag).