Chapter 242. Retracing Steps

"Are you alright?" Zein asked Naomi, who got paler and paler the further they stepped into the red-zone. 

What she saw from the gate were the 'robust' ones; espers and workers. But going further, they started to see the weaker civilians. And children. Scrawny children walked around in a heartbreaking condition; thin clothing, some barefooted and dirty, a lot had faces that did not belong to children.

They did not look at the three strangers with caution, but fear. They immediately scurried off to hide inside or behind a building, between the alley, or clutching to the nearest adult. 

"Sometimes higher-zone people came down to take children away," Zein explained this reaction to the real high-zone dwellers.