Destination reached

"L. Lion, eats antelope." Hitomi speaks up.

"A, alligator, eats turtles." Saya answers.

"T. Tarantula eats cicadas." Saeko responds right after.

"C. Crab, eats algae." I add right after.

"A. Alpaca, eats leaves. No, wait!" Hitomi speaks up again right after me, then instantly lifts both arms close to her face as she shakes them.

"Your alpaca ate hemlock. Too late, now it's dead. You lose." Saya responds with a grin as she lifts her finger, a triumphant smile on her face as she closes her eyes.

"Ahhh, my lama…" Hitomi responds as she lowers her head.

"Saya's too smart, it's like I'm handicapping myself by playing before her." Hitomi folds her arms as she lifts her head.

"Yea, why did we even agree to this game? Saya keeps winning every single time." I respond with a slight chuckle.

"Because nobody could think of anything else, don't blame me for your inability to think of something." Saya answers as she turns to me with her arms folded, her face still as smug as ever…

(Heh, I don't know how long we have been on the road. But seeing how we have been playing this for 'way' longer than I would like, I'd say I have been driving for quite some time. The place has also changed visually quite a bit. Houses have been replaced with tall buildings for quite some time now. And judging from the smoke pillars I see popping out in several spots around us, I'd say this place has been hit pretty hard…)

"So, Saya, care to tell me how far are we till our target?" I ask as I slow down the car next to an intersection.

"Hmm give me a sec." Saya nods and turns towards the map on her legs, then looks outside, then back at the map.

"Oh!…" Was all she said as she tilted her head.

"We are not far! just a couple of intersections to the right!" She lifts her head and turns to me with an excited face. An excitement, I honestly didn't share…

"So the mansion is next to 'this' shitstorm? Oh boy." I respond as I point from one side of the windshield to the other, showing the overall location.

"Not really, we should pass a small bridge before reaching the mansion, there is a river that cuts through this place. The bridge itself is not 'very' far from the mansion, so it should be guarded I guess? My Papa would send people to guard it if he was in charge of that place." Saya shakes her head as she looks back on the map.

"I see, so. I turn to the right?" I ask, and Saya nods.

And so, I turned the car to the right, and started going forward. The roads here, were in a pretty sorry state. But hey, tank on wheels don't give a fuck. And neither do I. As long as it's not a pile-up, corpse parade, or pit into the abyss, the car can handle it.

"Wonder if we can meet Takashi and the rest of the group after we get extracted." Saya says as she keeps looking at the map.

"Who knows, maybe if we look for them." I respond as I tilt my head.

"Hmm, I do hope we find them." Saeko says right after me as she leans between the two front seats.

"Yea, I for one, still owe Takashi a piece of my mind, for his last 'order'." Saya frowns as she folds her arms.

"True that…" Saeko responds as she glances at Saya…

"Did he do something bad?" Hitomi asks as she peeks from behind Saya's seat.

"You could say that." I answer as I tilt my head.

"And I'm not going to deny that I 'do' want to deck him..." I add right after.

(And not because in the corner of my head, I still have the scene with him and Saeko in the shrine, nope, definitely not.)

"Hmm the bridge should be close, next turn to the left, then right, should end up right in front of us then." Saya says after a short silence.

"Ai." I nod and do as she asks. Taking a left on the next turn, nearly trading paint with an abandoned sedan before going straight and…

"Huh? Did you hear something?" I ask as I slow down the car, all the girls turning to me with a weird expression…

"What are you ta…" Just as Saya was about to speak, I heard it again, and as Saya stopped talking, I guess she did too...distant gunshots…

"This can be either good, or really, really bad." I press on the gas again, turning right on the next turn. The bridge now straight ahead of us. And…

"..." I just stared.

"Oh no…" Hitomi, was the first one to speak.

"This, can't be good." I say after a couple of seconds…

The bridge had several cement barricades on it. The problem though was not that. It was that a couple of them looked, broken. And judging from the black soot on the ground. It seemed that explosives had a hand in that outcome…

"No wonder we didn't see a lot of corpses around…" Saeko was the next one to speak, pointing at several corpses on the other side of the bridge, all of them moving towards the deeper part of the landmass after said bridge. Towards several columns of smoke.

"Please tell me today is BBQ day and the smoke is coming from giant grills." I press on the gas as I give one last glance at the distance smoke columns, before looking back at the bridge. With the barricade turned to dust, we were able to pass through it with the car.

"Everything will be fine, right?" Hitomi asks.

"They have soldiers there, they should be able to deal with any infected that got through…" She adds with a half-broken voice.

"Corpses don't use explosives." I answered flatly. Causing Hitomi's face to turn even grimmer.

"But...but, why? Why…" Hitomi lowers her head as she leans back on her seat…

"I see another barricade up ahead." Saya points her finger ahead as she squints her eyes...

"Breached…" I respond as I also narrow my eyes.

"The hole does not seem too big." Saya adds right after.

"Enough to let corpses enter, not enough let cars enter. Or Leave." I say as I glance at the corpses over the second barricade.

"What are we going to do?" Saeko asks as she keeps leaning between the two seats with a serious expression.

"We are going in, obviously." I respond as I glance at her, she nods without speaking back.

After reaching the next barricade, while running over any corpse I saw like they were giving off points, I stop and look around.

"That alleyway to our left, I will park the Humvee in there, then use the net. If 'people' attacked, I don't need them seeing this car." I switch to reverse and drive the car into the alleyway.

"Too narrow to open the doors, out through the hatch." I switch the ignition off and turn to Saeko and Hitomi, Saeko nods and climbs out, Hitomi, did not respond. She instead looked as dejected as when we first found her…

"Hitomi. Disappointment is something that will be following us no matter how much we don't want it. If you want to find the end of this tunnel, then you need to keep yourself on your feet, nobody is going to help you up if you fall." I say as I get to the back seats and get the net.

"What's the point…" Hitomi responds with a sullen face.

"I got nobody waiting for me either way…" She adds, then lifts her face.

"Thank you for bringing me here, I can go by myself now." She adds with a slight 'smile'.

"I said I would bring you to an extraction point. If this ain't an extraction. Then we ain't done on my part of the deal." I respond as I turn to Saya.

"Keep the gun with you, we'll stay close-range combat for now, fire only after I fire. Also, take a couple of dynamites." I say as I keep looking at her. She nods with a serious expression and moves up next to me, then exits the car after grabbing a couple of red sticks. Leaving me alone with the dejected girl…

After a couple of seconds of silence, I let out a sigh…

"You want to give up?" I ask. Hitomi just keeps looking away.

"You want the last moments of your life to be misery caused by some random schmucks you never even saw?" I ask again.

"It's, not this easy…" Hitomi responds without looking at me.

"Never said it's easy. If you want to off yourself, I am not going to stop you. But I said I will bring you to a safe place, I intend to do so. So make your choice, you can come with us, or you can leave. The choice is yours." I glance at the hatch before looking back at Hitomi.

"I'm, sorry. I understand…" She wipes her eyes and nods a couple of times.

"But, I can't fight…" She says as she turns to me.

"You won't, just stay in the middle and keep as quiet as you can." I respond as I glance through the windshield, Saya and Saeko waiting near the alleyway's end.

"Ok…" Hitomi nods meekly before getting up, clumsily climbing out.

(...I knew she would be fast to 'lose' hope after what she went through, but I didn't expect it to be 'this' fast. Let's just hope that there are at least 'some' survivors left.)

With the net in one hand, and Scar in the other, I exit the car. Leaving the hatch very slightly open as I cover the car.

(Ok, not smart, but the only other way in, is through the trunk, I need to be able to get back inside fast. So, let's go…)

I nod slightly and walk down to the hood, then jump down the car as I strap the gun on me, gripping the blade's hilt that was on my side as I walk up to the trio.

"Ok, keep silent, we will be using close-range weapons, so Saeko and me in the front, Hitomi in the middle, Saya, watch our rear. We are going in as fast as we can, so both me and Saeko will be in the front to clear whatever might come our way..." I glance at the girls as I speak, then turn to the smashed barricade. Saeko nods and draws her sword with a slight smile, while Saya walks to the back of the group.

With that, we walked past the second barricade. The place around seemed to be a residential area, as I could see houses once again. And, the first casualties from this attack were already visible. Two dead soldiers were a bit further in…

I walked up to the one that was facing up to the sky and looked at the body…

"Bullet holes. They got shot, and corpses seem to ignore them. Meaning they died quite some time before the corpses actually got here. Whoever did this, planned ahead…" I kneel down and give the body a quick pat-down.

(Looted.)

"Eyes open, they had guns, and knew how to use them." I glance at the girls as I get up, then turn to walk forward…

While there was a rather big amount of corpses ahead of us, all of them were going towards the same way we were, attracted by the gunshots that could be heard further in. So, we kept moving in silence, along with the corpses. Until, a loud gunshot echoed, one that was way closer compared to the others we were hearing so far. And, one of the corpses ahead of us fell to the ground.

(Shit! Somebody is shooting towards us?!)

I quickly turned around and motioned everybody to hide behind the nearby parked cars, pushing Hitomi, who did not move, with me as we ran to the left, hiding behind a parked car…

"T, they're shooting at us?..." Hitomi asks with her eyes wide open, visible distress on her face.

"Don't rush out, we don't know if they're on our side or not." I whisper back as I bring my finger to where my mouth should be. Then sheath my sword and take the scar in my hands. The gunshots echoed louder and louder as the corpses that were ahead of us slowly started to decrease. Until, I could make out a couple of figures walking in the opposite direction compared to everything else…

"...These, are not J.S.D.F soldiers." Saya whispers to me as she grips the Mp5.

"Back off and stay quiet." I whisper back as I lower myself and glance at the road…

(Four of them, black, gray and white camo outfits, they look pretty decked out, mercenaries? Hmm, they look like foreigners too, and not because one of them is almost two meters tall, completely bald and with a Santa Claus beard, also sporting a heavy machine gun. The one next to him looks like a dwarf in comparison, stocky, much like Salvador from Borderlands 2. He seems to be holding an assault rifle that I can't exactly make out. The one in the leftmost corner is black, also tall. Uhh, I see, explosives on his vest. Demolitionist? The rightmost, I can't facially make out, he is wearing a full-face helmet and armor, carrying what seems to be a full-auto shotgun, an AA-12.)

As the squad got near, I could hear speaking, English speaking...

"The fuck did that egghead go? Come here to extract my ass, he said. And by the time we got here he was moved to a different location. Fucking bullshit man!" The dwarf shouts as he kicks a nearby can with his boot.

"When is our extraction coming?" The black one asks.

"Two days by the port. We need to have the egghead by then, or we'll be left in this shithole. They won't take us out of here if they can't verify that their little mole is either dead, or with us." The skinhead look-alike responds.

"Hey quiet down, you want everybody to hear?" The full face mask man speaks up.

"Are you for fucking real? Look around you Robocop, there's nobody around who CAN hear us. All there is around is walking meat. And whatever fucking slash eyed ladyboy we found could not even fucking speak English! It's the international damn language, learn how to fucking speak it!" The dwarf one shouts, turning to the armored one as they walk up next to us…

(Keep walking…)

They then walk past us, and over the barricade. Also walking past the alleyway that the car was inside without stopping. I then turn to the girls and motion them to stay put.

(As much as I want to 'ask' them a couple of questions, four nutjobs armed to the teeth is not something I want to fight right now.)

"Did one of them just say mole in english?" Saya 'asks' with a whisper as she turns to me with a questioning look.

"Yea, I'm pretty sure I heard that too." I respond.

"And that video we saw at my house, with the scientist. He said that this 'thing' was manufactured…" Saya adds as she narrows her eyes.

"Wrong time to think about this Saya, leave it for when we're not in the open." I say as I turn to her, she looks at me for a couple of seconds, then nods.

(But it should be something I must not forget. Somebody hired mercenaries, to come here post-outbreak and extract a 'mole'. Could have nothing to do with the outbreak. Could be everything. It's also something that was never mentioned in the anime.)

After I saw the four mercenaries pass over the bridge and disappear in the distance…

"Move, let's go." I motion with my hand and get up. Then start moving deeper into the 'evacuation zone' once again.

With the corpses now 'dead', we just walked straight down the road without resistance. I, could not see anything that seemed remotely close to a mansion yet, or any sort of refugee camp, or its remains. The only thing that I could see that signified that this place was under guard, was the occasional 'really' dead soldier. So, we kept moving forward for some time. Until we started hearing something again, the sound of fire, and screaming. Along with the same 'distant' shots we heard before, except they did sound so far now.

"These sound close, come on." I glance behind me before I start a light jog, gripping the scar H...

Upon reaching the next intersection, I see that it was connected to a bridge, the left and right sides leading to the road under the bridge, with the bridge itself continuing forward. Most importantly though, all the noise was coming from our right, towards a giant building. Fires raging all around it.

"What do we do now…" Hitomi asks.

"Check the situation." I answer as I walk toward the bridge, stopping in its middle while looking at the burning mansion. It was not too far from where we were, as I could actually see the corpses limping about inside, I could also see people running around. But most importantly, I could see what seemed to be a landed military helicopter on the left part of the building's giant front 'yard', five soldiers on the helicopter, with corpses swarming under it. The gunshots we have been hearing, yea, they were the ones responsible.

Two army men were shooting the corpses under them, another one was waving his hand towards the main building, and judging from the survivors I could see running towards it, I guess he was ordering them to go there. I could also see several tents, military trucks and some jeeps. A couple of them, on fire.

"They're still fighting." I nod as I kneel and place the gun on the bridge's rail, using it as a bipod.

"We are going to help?" Saeko asks.

"Good deed of the day." I respond as I look through the scope.

"I will try to make them realize we are here, after that, we will toss a stick of dynamite on the street below, the sound should make the corpses move out the mansion. I just hope these soldiers know how to react to an opening." I respond as I focus on a corpse that was walking towards the survivors from the right side of the mansion's yard.

"Anything that comes towards us, light it up." I say as I wait for the moment where the soldiers were not shooting. Then pull the trigger.

The corpse I was aiming plummets to the ground, but keeps moving about. I then look towards the soldiers, to see two of them looking towards me. I raise my hand as I keep looking through the scope, they respond by raising their hands as well.

"Alright they know we are here. Saya, I'ma need two dynamites." I respond as I glance at the pinkette who was watching over one side of the bridge. She nods and hands me her bag. Which I opened, and then pulled out the two dynamites.

I light one up and throw it over on the road below, a loud explosion echoing several seconds later. All the corpses instantly came to a halt, and slowly turned around…

Until one soldier opened fire again...

"Fucking idiot." I growl under my breath.

I look back towards the trigger happy soldier, to see the soldier who was standing behind him throwing a slap to the back of the helmet of the trigger happy guy. Causing it to cover his face all the way to the mouth. The guy then turns around as he fixes his helmet, finally pulling his finger from the trigger. One of the soldiers turns to me again, and starts waving both arms in the air widely.

"Don't fuck this up again." I light the dynamite again, and toss it. A second explosion soon after, the corpses changing direction once again…

This time, the soldiers strayed quiet, and the moment the heli was free of rotting walkers, they climbed down and ran towards the main building, knocking a couple of corpses on the ground as they ran towards the mansion's front door. And the moment they reached it, they started banging on it.

"Naier, we have corpses coming towards us from our left." Saeko speaks up as she turns to me.

"Open fire, I need more time." I respond as I keep looking at the soldiers through the scope.

The moment the mansion door opened, three of them went inside, while the other two ran towards the big military trucks. And after each soldier got into one, they turned them on and drove them towards the mansion's front door. Which flung open the moment the first truck stopped, people running in a panic to climb up the back side. The other three soldiers then also exited the building, and as the trucks were already making enough noise as it was, they instantly started shooting. One of them looked at me and started pointing his finger to my left.

"Ok, back to the car, move, move." I get up and motion the girls to move. Saeko makes a quick dash forward, decapitating a single corpse before backing off with a nod, turning around to head towards the road that led to the car, Saya picked her bag and started running, Hitomi followed behind.

With all the corpses on our way back still dead, we reached the barricade without much of a fuss.

"We need to get the car through here. More dynamite, we'll blow the hole open." I speak as we reach the smashed barricade.

"Ok." Saya nods and opens her bag, then hands me the remaining three dynamites.

"Get in the car." I say as I take the sticks. Lighting all of them on fire and stuffing them in the holes next to the already smashed barricade. Then ran back to the car, the girls waiting in front of it.

I grab the net as I climb up, taking it off and opening the hatch, then throw it inside as a loud explosion goes off behind me.

"Damn, that was loud." I shake my head as I enter the car, then move to the front seat. The girls followed behind shortly after, with Saeko sitting next to me on the front seat this time around.

I turn the car on and step on the gas, turning to the left the moment I exit the alleyway, a wide hole visible in the barricade now. Wide enough for the Humvee to pass…

I then drove straight until I reached the bridge, then turned to look past Saeko's window. To see one of the trucks still there. The moment the truck driver saw me, he flashed the headlights of his truck and started moving, turning to the right. Aka, my straight ahead. I nod and press on the gas…

The road was now making a slight downward slope as I kept driving forward. And a minute later, I see one of the trucks zooming past from the right to the left, two intersections down from where we were.

(There.)

I nod and keep driving forward, taking whatever sorry corpse didn't move out the way with me. And the moment I reached the second intersection, I stopped. Turning to look for the second truck. To find it passing right in front of me seconds later while honking its horn.

"Well, that could have been a lame way to fail, crashing into the friendly truck." I chuckle as I turn to follow the second truck…

(Holy shit that escalated quickly…)

I let out a sigh as I glanced at the people on the back of the truck that was ahead of us, a couple of them also looking back towards us.

"You saved these people." Saeko says as she turns to me.

"Yea, so now they owe us." I respond as I glance at her. She just answered with an "Ohh?" As she arched an eyebrow with a slight smirk.

After driving for a couple of minutes, the trucks finally stopped on an empty road. The soldiers then climbed out of the trucks, gathering up in one spot before walking towards our car. In the meantime, I opened the door and exited the car, but kept most of my body behind the open door.

"You're not military." A soldier with the rank of second lieutenant up speaks as they close in...

"And you're not dead. You're welcome." I respond as I fold my arms over the door and lean on it...

The soldier who spoke to me frowned a bit, before a new one with a beret came over. The two stars on his uniform, along with the soldier who moved out of the way and stood in attention telling me he was a Major general.

(Whoo look at them starz, my old self sort of wants to reflexively go to attention and blurt out name and unit.)

"Where did you find this car civilian? It looks military grade." The asks.

"Friend of a friend, based on what she told me, her friend was in the airport last time they spoke." I respond, the frowns as he folds his arms.

"The airport? That location was almost lost after the E.M.P.s fell." He replies.

"Almost?" I ask back.

"The chief of the first squadron in the prefecture police managed to reduce casualties. Thanks to her we managed to set up base nearby in order to launch a counter-attack." He answers.

(Ohh, that's new. I do remember that in the manga Rika single-handedly supposedly saved a bunch of people in the airport, from what a soldier said. But I didn't know anything about a base.)

"That place is also the nearest safe base considering our location. We are going to head there and assist with the takeover, then use the airport to ship the people out by boat or plane. If you want to get out of here, you will want to come with us. We are going to make a short stop here to plan our route, then leave." He adds as he turns around, motioning his soldiers to follow him with his hand.

I nod slightly and enter the car.

"You heard him?" I ask. The girls nod.

"So, airport, or somebody got a better idea?" I ask again.

"Airport." Saya responds Saeko nodding after her.

I nod as well, and turn to look ahead...

"Umm." Hitomi then speaks up as she wiggles about on her seat slightly.

"I'm sorry for before, thank you, for helping me…" She says as she slightly lowers her head.

"Don't mention it." I respond.

"Umm, I know these trucks have survivors, but umm. Can I stay in this car until we reach the airport please?" She asks, I just nodded without speaking.

And a couple of minutes later, one of the soldiers with the rank of private comes up next to the hood, slamming it lightly before pointing ahead.

"We are leaving, you're coming?" He asks.

"Yea, I'll stay behind the trucks." I respond, the soldier nods and runs back to his truck. And shortly after, the trucks started to move again.

"Hmm, but, this won't do…" Saeko tilts her head slightly as she folds her arms under her chest. And, I swear, I could see two guys from the truck ahead of us staring at her 'assets'.

"Ehh?" I glance at her as I raise an eyebrow.

"You were supposed to take me out to see the stars tonight..." She responds as she turns to me with a slight smirk.

"Huh, I don't see why our plans would have changed, it will just be a different location. Hey, they might even take back the airport, more space to stroll about." I respond as I turn to her.

"Hmm, true. I trust your words then." She answers with a slight smile.

(I actually want to spend time with her more than she can imagine, but uhh, angry pinkette flag confirmed if I say that out loud.)

"So, want to go on with the game?" I ask as I glance at the girls, all of them looking at me with a questioning expression.

"You know, the one with Hitomi's dead Lama." I respond, getting a unified 'Ohh' as an answer.

"Humm, how about we place a bet this time around." Saya 'asks'.

"Sorry, but I will have to decline." Saeko responds almost instantly.

"Ohh, you're scared?" Saya asks with a grin.

"If it means losing my allotted time with Naier, then yes, I am." Saeko responds flatly.

"Ahh? Never thought the daughter of the great Busujima family would shy away from a challenge. Guess I had a wrong image of you." Saya responds, the grin still on her face.

"Hmm? And I didn't know that the daughter of the Takagi's would use such underhanded methods to get what she wanted." Saeko answers back, also with a slight grin. Causing Saya's eye to twitch as her toothy smirk became one-sided.

And while the two girls were going at each other. I was staring at the two dudes in the truck. Who were 'still' staring at the wrong spot...

(...I'ma stabby staaab, sommmebodyyy todaaayyy~)

I swerved the car slightly to the right, seeing the two guys turning their heads in unison to 'their' right as the car changed position.

"Why, these two damn hobos…" I groaned under my breath, causing Saeko to turn to me as she tilted her head.

"Is there something bothering you?" She asks.

"Floran wants ssssstab monkey man." I growl in a low tone, causing Saeko to blink at me with a blank stare.

"Umm, forgive me. But, I fear I did not understand what you just said." She responds to me with genuine confusion.

"I think, that's a line from a video game…" Hitomi speaks up.

(Ah? A fellow gamer? Wait, starbound exists here?)

"Oh, I am sorry. I never did play video games, so I am not very well informed on the matter." Saeko glances away as she answers.

"Yea, don't remember if you actually mentioned this before, or if my image of you had you not playing video games from the get go. But I sort of expected that answer." I respond and laugh through my nose as I glance at her.

"Heh, not that it really matters now anyway. We don't even have electricity, much less a console or a gaming Pc." I add up.

"Nerd." Saya chortles.

"I can't be a nerd and an idiot at the same time Saya. A nerd is supposed to be smart." I respond as I tilt my head.

"Uhh, you're the exception, you are both a nerd and an idiot." Saya responds with the same gleeful tone as she folds her arms and leans between the two front seats.

(When did she get in such a good mood?)

"Of course…" I shake my head as I chuckle, keeping my eyes on the road.

Just then, Saeko closes her eyes and stretches, or well, folds her arms behind her back and stretches.

"Tired?" I ask, glancing at the two guys who were now staring even more intently….

"I am sorry, a sudden wave of fatigue just hit me." Saeko responds as she opens her eyes.

"The front seat is probably crap to sleep on. Want to go in the back seats?" I ask.

"Hmm, maybe for a bit…" She nods slightly and gets up from her seat, crawling to the middle platform in the back before laying down, after placing a sleeping bag under her that is…

With Saeko now gone, I glance at the duo in the truck again. One of them makes a 'tch' motion with his mouth before looking away, the other following suit shortly after.

(Annoyed? Goooood. I will still sssstaby stab you though. Even if I was actually boring human race in that game.)