A path to choose

"Plug the hole dammit!" The man mounted on the raptor shouts. Clad from head to toe in high tech armor.

"I'm trying! Frigging plesiosaur keeps clipping me back!'' I shouted back as I kept trying to reach the cracked window. While the head of a plesiosaur, that had clipped through the metal wall next to it, kept pushing me back every time I got near the window.

"I swear, if we lose this base because of the plesi, I'm fucking feeding it to a level two troodon! And then I'm shotgun-blasting that troodon in the face!" The man shouts once again.

"Don't you fucking dare use the shotgun! Or I'm selling your spleen for the metal ingots!" I shout back as I keep running towards the window. The level of the water was well over my waist by now...

"Dude! We have tek gear and an underwater base! Why do you care about metal ingots so much!?" The guy shouts.

"I don't care! You will NOT waste metal! And that's finaaaagrrllll..." Before I could finish, my head was underwater. I reflexively closed my eyes as I got violently pushed away…

By the next time I opened my eyes. All I could see, was a deep dark blue. And as I kept looking around, I saw them. Giant tentacles, a lot of them. Creeping out from the darkness to my left.

"Fuuuuuggrll! Sqiiiiiiiiiddrll!" I quickly start swimming to my right as I scream in panic, trying to get away from the slithering tentacles that were closing in.

Yet, in the flash of a moment, they were in front of me, warping around me and forcefully pulling me back. Then, they turned me around, bringing me face to face with a giant squid…

(Welp I'm ded, at least I don't have any ascendant gear on me)

And as the squid drew me closer to itself it...giggled in a female voice?

(...Wait wut?)

Before I could even analyze what I just heard, the squid was grinding me against its mantle. It's giant eye squinted in a happy expression as it occasionally gave off a rather soft, feminine growl…

(Ok, this is weird, in so many ways. I never had a problem with 'monster girls'. But this is fuking absurd)

And as things could not get any weirder. A mosasaur appeared…

"H,hey! What are you doing!" The mosasaur speaks up, again with a feminine voice…

"Hmm, the same thing you were doing when I got back…" The squid replies.

"W, well I'm back now, so stop it" The mosasaur whines.

"Ohh? You are not going to tell me that you were just half asleep back then?" The squid asks with a slight giggle.

"...I'm. What's the point of hiding what I want?" The mosasaur asks back. The squid giggles back as an answer.

"W, what's so funny?" The mosasaur asks with a flustered voice.

"I see you are taking his words to heart" The squid answers back.

"...You, were awake, weren't you?" The mosasaur asks once again.

"Yes, I wanted to have as much time as I could next to him, before falling asleep. After all, we will be walking all day again" The squid answers back as I feel it's tentacles tighten around me.

(Wait, squids can walk?)

And just as I was thinking that, my sight turned blurry. I close my eyes and shake my head as I feel my brain clearing up.

The next time I opened my eyes, I found Saeko on my right, nuzzling up against my neck.

"H,hey!" I hear another voice to my left. Shifting my sight, I see Saya, dressed in her 'After Rika's house' outfit. The one with the white jacket, black shirt, and green school skirt, her hair was also tied into twin-tails. Then again, that jacket was all she was missing to match the outfit yesterday, and the twin-tails.

Saeko, from what I could see at least, being that her head was blocking most of my view, was still wearing that buttoned shirt.

I shake my head and move my hand to my face, covering my eyes.

"Hum, and look who's finally up…" I heard Saya say as she walked up to me.

"Had fun sleeping with two girls at the same time idiot?" She asks with a slight pout as she kneels down next to me.

"Uhh, what? Wait, who was on night guard, no wait, I was on night guard" I shake my head as I try to get up, something that proved to be impossible with Saeko weighing me down.

"Ughh, are you for real? That's all you have to say? Idiot." She replies as she lightly jabs at my sides.

"Oi, what gives" I bend my body slightly, before jabbing right back at her. She lets out a rather cute short yelp...Before she starts to 'rapid fire' her jabs at me as a retaliation. Something that I was not really able to defend against because Saeko had 'taken over' half of my body.

"Ah! Aaaa, Ok ok ok you win you win, stapstapstap" I start waving my only free arm as I try to avoid Saya's relentless assault. It did wake me up at least..

"Hum, serves you right…" Saya puffs her cheeks as she finally stops jabbing me.

"But seriously, who was on night guard?" I ask the moment I manage to catch my breath.

Saya looks at me for a couple of seconds, before letting out a sigh.

"Saeko took the first round, I took the second, I was actually coming back from it now" Saya finally replies.

"I see, so it's my turn now, feels like I slept for ages to be honest" I nod slightly as I rub my eyes.

"Because you did, we decided to cut the shifts to two…" Saya glances away as she folds her arms.

"Huh? Why?" I ask as I lift an eyebrow.

"Because we wanted to spend more time with you, so we decided to split your shift between us" I hear a new voice to my right, Saeko's.

I turned my head slightly to my right, to see that Saeko was still with her eyes closed, her nose almost touching my neck. Then, I turn back to Saya. She just looked at me for a couple of seconds before glancing away.

"Y, you better be grateful…" She says with a pout as she keeps her arms folded under her chest.

(Oh? She is not denying it?)

"I am" I replied with the most honest voice I could muster, considering the situation.

"Hum, well, you better get your lazy butt off the bed, the sun has been up for quite some time now…" She responds as she gets up and starts walking towards the door. Only to stop midway.

"And hurry up idiot, your food will get cold…" She adds without turning around, then exits the room with a rather hasty pace.

(...Wait, Saya can cook?)

As I was thinking that, I felt two hands wrapping around my neck.

"Naier, girls can get jealous if you're paying attention to others but not them..." I hear a female whisper to my ear.

Turning my head to the right, I find Saeko gazing at me with a smile. Her head still resting on the pillow, aka the sleeping bag.

"Good morning" She spoke up again the moment she locked eyes with me.

"Morning Saeko" I respond as I turn my whole body towards her.

"Slept well?" I ask right after.

Saeko giggles, closes her eyes and slides up closer to me, before bumping her head against my chest.

"This must be the very first time in my life, that I don't want to get off my bed" She replies with a small sigh.

I silently placed my hand to her head, then ran it along her hair.

We stayed like that for a couple of minutes, up to the point that I felt that I would honestly fall asleep again…

"Uhh, we really should get up…" I groan as I bring my hand to my face. Saeko didn't respond.

"Ey, you fell asleep again?" I ask as I put my hand on her shoulder and shake her lightly. The only reaction I got from her was a soft moan…

(If I poke her now, will she reflexively karate chop my throat or something?...Ah fuck it)

I slowly bring my finger up to Saeko's cheek, and poke it. She groans a bit as she tries to 'hide' her face between me and the bed.

"Oi, you fell asleep again?" I poke at her cheek again. Saeko giggles slightly, but stays otherwise motionless.

"Maybe if I had a good morning kiss, instead of cheek poking. It would help me wake up." Saeko whispers with a smile, her eyes still closed.

(Oh, really?)

Without answering, I lean my upper body slightly back and run my finger along her cheek, before stopping it under her chin. Pushing her chin up, I aligned her face with mine. Saeko kept her eyes closed during all this, yet, I could see a visible blush appearing on her cheeks, and her mouth was also very slightly open…

(With such a deep blush, I'd say that she's actually expecting something)

I bring myself forward, and press my lips against hers. Saeko almost instantly starts 'pushing' her face against mine. And after a couple of seconds, I back off and gaze at Saeko as she finally opened her eyes.

"Come on, let's go" I move my hand to the top of her head and ruffle her hair, Saeko nods with a smile as she closes her eyes for a few seconds.

And with that. I get up, take my gear, and head downstairs, where I found Saya sitting on the counter, bento on one hand, chopsticks in the other, looking towards the pool.

"I should have taken the first shift…" Saya whines while still looking at the pool, bringing the chopsticks to her mouth.

"She got more time with him compared to me now..." She says in a low tone after swallowing.

"What?" I 'ask' as I start walking towards her. Causing Saya to turn towards me.

"Finally. You certainly took your sweet time getting up" She responds with a slight pout.

"Guess I was more tired than I thought" I respond as I stop next to her and spot two more bentos next to her, along with a set of chopsticks and my swiss knife.

"Well don't blame me if it's cold now" She turns her towards her own bento before she starts eating again.

I nod and pick one of the two extra bentos that laid next to her along with the swiss knife.

(Hmm, She made these? Compared to Saeko's, they look way more, sloppy. For the lack of a better term)

And take then, I take a bite.

(Ohh? It's actually pretty good)

"You just thought that it's weird that I can cook, didn't you…" Saya speaks up as she turns to me with a frown, narrowing her eyes in the process.

"Well, I thought that you'd have people that cooked for you in your house. Not you as you, but your whole family" I respond as I turn to her.

"And even if I did, does that mean that I should not be allowed to learn how to cook if I want to?" She asks again, the frown still on her face.

"No, of course I didn't mean it like that Saya. I just didn't take you for a person who would spend time learning something without a reason" I respond as I glance at my bento.

"Hum, and what makes you think I had no reason" Saya responds as she turns back to her food, bringing her chopsticks to her mouth.

"So you had a reason? Heh, what was it? You learned how to cook so you can bring homemade food to Takashi or something?" I ask with a slight chuckle as I turn to her.

Saya instantly darts her head to me, her eyes going as wide as they could get. While her cheeks started to blush...

"Wait...for real?" I ask again as I raise an eyebrow and tilt my head.

"S...shut up..." She glanced around before quickly turning back to her food.

(Holy crabs Saya. The work you've put in for Takashi is like successfully making a supercar from the ground up, while forgetting to add the frigging wheels. Seeing as you failed on the most basic part of being kind to him…)

"Well, his loss" I shrug slightly as I start eating.

And as I bring the fork close to my face, Saeko comes down the stairs, looking completely awake.

"Good morning" She says as she walks up to us.

"Morning..." Saya mumbles as she keeps looking at her bento.

Saeko then walks up next to me, takes the third bento, and sits next to me.

"By the way. We, we have to set another rule." Saya speaks up just as Saeko took a seat. Causing both of us to turn to her.

"Taking turns…" She says right after with a low tone as she keeps looking at her bento.

"Taking what?" I ask as I tilt my head.

"Sleeping on the double bed, we will take turns sleeping on it" Saya adds as she glances at me.

"It's too packed when all three of us are on it…" She adds right after.

"Well, it is supposed to be for two people after all" I respond as I leave the bento on my legs and fold my arms.

"Makes sense. So, how will we 'take turns'?" Saeko adds as she tilts her head.

"Me or you will sleep on the single bed today, the other one will sleep on it the day after" Saya responds as she turns to stare at Saeko.

"And I will sleep there on the third day?" I ask.

"N, no. You, you are the leader. So you need to always be in top shape. So you will only sleep on the double one" Saya glances around as she answers.

(...Ohh, sneaky snek is trying to be sneaky. Especially considering that the single bed was actually way more expensive. But whatever, hell knows I don't mind this 'setup'...)

"I took the first shift, so I'm going to take the first turn" Saya adds right after.

"Very well" Saeko responds as she closes her eyes, leaves the bento next to her, and stretches.

"Also, Naier" Saya then turns her focus to me. And the moment she saw me looking at her.

"I looked at the map for a bit, I have a couple of paths set up that we can take to reach the mansion, once we're ready, look at them and tell me which one you think we should take" She adds as she keeps fiddling with the rice in the bento with the chopsticks.

"Good idea, we'll check em once we're done here" I respond as I nod.

"By the way, Naier..." Just as I finish speaking, Saeko speaks up. Turning my head around I find her staring at me.

"You have not forgotten about my weapon training, have you?" She asks.

"Nope, after you're finished eating, change to your normal uhh, gear. And we'll start" I respond as I point at her bento.

"Alright, I will change after I have finished, if what I am wearing now bothers you" Saeko responds as she looks at her half-buttoned shirt…

(Oh yea, ignore the fact that your boobs are sixty-five present visible with that shirt that you left unbuttoned, I need to focus on the gun, not your boobs. Hmm, better if I don't actually say that, Saya will probably go ballistic on me if she hears that)

"Better to show you how to use it while you're wearing the equipment that you'll actually use with it" I respond as I start eating. Saeko giggles slightly before nodding…

(Giggling aren't you, bet you knew exactly 'why' I'm telling you to change...)

With that out of the way, we ate in relative silence…

Though I do have to admit, both girls looked to be in higher spirits compared to yesterday.

After we were done, Saeko took the bentos to the sink in the bathroom, while I headed to the car to get the first part of my 'outfit'. Getting there though...I came to a terrifying realization…

"Were, the fuck, is, my, mask..." I narrow my eyes as I look at the car's front bumper.

I kneel down and look under the Humvee, nothing. Unlocked the car and looked inside, nada…

(The balaclava is missing too, and I pretty much stabbed it through the antenna. I smell treason)

I turn around and start heading back towards the back door.

(One of the two yoinked it? Hmm, question is, who? Both were pretty much demanding to take it off...)

With that thought, I return to the store's main room, to find Saya with her back turned to me, disassembling the hard plastic pool.

(How do I go about this? Both of them 'might' have taken it…)

As I was thinking, Saya turns around and spots me.

"What are you standing there for?" She asks as she tilts her head.

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking how both of you will be toast if I don't get my mask back in less than ten minutes." I respond with a deadpan face.

"W, what?" Saya keeps staring at me for a couple of seconds…

"What makes you think one of us took it" She asks as her eyebrows curve into a frown.

"The mask was in the inside part of the barricade, if a random survivor passed, fat chance they jumped over to just take the mask, the balaclava is missing too, and it's impossible for it to 'fall' as it was stabbed through the antenna, which was still intact." I answer as I fold my arms.

"Well I didn't take it" Saya also folds her arms as she leans her upper body towards me, flat out denying her involvement.

Just then, I saw the door to my right open, the one that led to the bathroom. Saeko walked out with the bentos on her hands, she then closed the door with her leg and took a deep breath. After that she turned to us, tilting her head the moment she realized that we were both staring at her.

"Is, there something wrong?" She asks.

"Idiot here is saying that one of us hid his stupid mask" Saya responds as puts her arms on her hips and turns to glance at me.

"You can't find it?" Saeko asks as she turns to me.

"I wouldn't be asking you two if I could find it" I respond as I tilt my head.

"Want me to help you look?" She asks right after.

"You do realize that you are a suspect too don't you, you voted against it along with Saya after all" I answer as with a slight one-sided smirk. Saeko responds with a slight giggle.

"Of course, I understand." She answers as she smiles back at me.

"You can search all my belongings if you want to, I don't mind" She adds right after as she keeps looking at me.

"Well seeing as both of you deny it, either I got a ninja stalker, or one of you is pulling my leg" I respond as I look towards the ceiling then turn to look back at the girls…

"So, I'm going to ask again one last time, who yoinked my mask. If I get an answer now, I'll leave it at that. " I ask again as I turn to look at the two staring girls...No response.

"Nothing?...Come on corpses didn't take it, I'd rather know that one of you took it instead of coming to the conclusion that an alive person, that was not from our group, came this close to us without us realizing." I tilt my head as I keep looking at the two girls.

"If it was a person, why would they just steal the mask and leave?" Saya asks right after.

"It's far enough to be safe, but close enough to show that they can be a threat" I respond.

"Aren't you overthinking this a little bit Naier?" Saeko was the next one to speak.

(Overthinking? Sweetheart, I went full Spec Ops in order to hide a bat in a vent. A bat, in a vent.)

"If it means I'll avoid seeing you two getting hurt, then yes, I am overthinking this. Last thing I need is waking up with a gun pointed at my head and hoping that the one holding it ain't a damn rapist" I respond as I take turns looking at them. Both of them just stood there, staring at me…Until Saya looked away with a sigh.

"We can't even pull a little prank without you blowing it out of proportion…" She groans as she keeps looking away.

"I have your stupid mask, stop freaking out, nobody is after us…" She adds up as she turns to me while folding her arms. Saeko just lowered her head slightly and walked past me, though, I could see a smile on her face.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry. We were actually both in this" She says as she leaves the bentos on the table.

"But, I am happy to know that you care about me this much. It means a lot to me" Saeko adds as she turns around to look at me with a warm smile.

Saya then walked, or pretty much stomped, her way to the counter. Went behind it, and took her bag. After opening it, she pulled my mask and balaclava out and left them on the counter…

I walk up to the counter and take my stuff.

"And now I'm definitely never taking it off again" I say as I wear my headgear back on.

"Hey, it was just a joke idiot. We won't do it again….' Saya responds with a slight pout as she narrows her eyes at me.

"Hmm, we'll see. For now, Saeko, please get dressed, Saya check that we didn't leave anything behind. I will go to the second floor to get my gear and deal with the inflatables" I respond as I turn to walk towards the hallway.

"And I had it all planned out so perfectly. Stupid idiot" I hear Saya whisper behind me.

(She had the what what now?)

Ignoring Saya's last statement I head back to the second floor. There, I wore the rest of my gear. Vest, arm/leg guards, Scar-H, handgun, my bag, you get the idea.

(Ok, I should deflate the 'beds' now)

With that thought, I started to deflate the double inflatable. In the laziest way possible, by sitting on it. After taking the pump's nozzle out and sticking it into the inflatable's valve. No way I'm keeping that thing pressed till it's over.

(Hmm, I know I didn't clean my gear other than my mask. But they don't look dirty at all. Did somebody else do it? Then again, I didn't fight too much for them to get dirty. Heh, Never thought I'd use the words 'didn't fight too much' in a friggin zombie apocalypse. Guess that shows how valuable Saeko is to the group in a survival aspect.)

I stretch before 'slapping' my hands on the bed I was on.

(To think, I was kissing with Saeko here some time ago. I know the only reason this whole thing with me Saeko and Saya is possible because of the outbreak, but I do wish that we were not in the middle of it right now. Though then, I'd say fat chance they would accept 'sharing'..."

Bored of waiting, I take the Scar-H and start unloading it, then take the bullets I took out and start filling them back in the magazine.

(Hmm, I got only one mag for the Scar right? I don't remember getting a second one from the dude in the armory at Saya's house. Uhh, this does limit the total rounds I can carry. At least, I know that Japan's special forces group uses Scar's. So, who knows...)

I turn to look at the bed after a few seconds.

"God, how long will this take…" I groan under my breath…

-Several minutes later-

I had my eyes closed and my head resting on my hands…

"I need to figure a better way to do this. The double one is too big…" I glance at the bed without moving my head as I speak to myself…

I was about to get up, when I heard footsteps from the door that was ahead of me, the one that led to the stairs. And seconds later, Saya appeared by the door frame.

"We are done downstairs, we folded the pool too" She says as she folds her arms and turns to her left, or my right. Towards the deeper, darker part of the room.

"I see, I still need to deflate these" I respond.

Saya just nods while still looking away.

"Hey, umm" She speaks up as she turns to me.

"...Sorry" She whispers.

"What?" I 'ask' acting as if I didn't hear her whisper.

"I know you heard me idiot. You always hear me when you're not supposed to…" She responds with a pout as she wraps her folded arms a little tighter around her.

"Don't worry, we all need to joke around some times" I respond as I raise both arms and shrug slightly.

"It still doesn't make it right, I didn't realize that you were this troubled about our safety" She shakes her head slightly as she speaks.

After a few seconds of silence, I tap on the bed I was on, Saya tilts her head while staying in place.

"Come'er" I say as I tap on the inflatable again. Saya glances around before looking at me again.

(There's nobody else around you idiot, who do you think I'm talking to?)

She lowers her head slightly, walks up to me and flops on the bed, taking a seat to my left.

She then puts her hands on her knees, and keeps looking at them. After a few seconds, she takes a deep breath.

"Look, I..." She exhales as she speaks, and closes her eyes. Then takes another deep breath as she opens her eyes.

"I know I can sometimes come off as obnoxious and insensitive. I'm not stupid, I understand how my actions can make other people see me" She kept looking at her kees as she spoke.

"You know, Rei and Takashi. They were the only real friends I had. They were the only ones that didn't act all nice to me because I was a 'Takagi', trying to reach my parents through me or plainly wanting 'something' from me. Most people I knew didn't even look at me in the eye when they spoke to me. And before you say something retarded, it was like that before I started acting like this too..." Saya closes her eyes and 'smiles'.

"But hey, I guess the snobby rich kid persona suits me better. At least I don't have to deal with idiots that think I'm too stupid to understand their game…" She adds as she brings her knees to her chests, wrapping her arms around her legs in the process.

(To think I called her out to sit with me so I could make this thing deflate faster. Only for her to lay this on me…)

"Say something…" Saya whispers in a low tone…

"Saya, you don't have to explain yourself to me. And I got to say, compared to our first meet up, we went quite the way in terms of how you act towards me" I respond as I put my hand on her head and ruffle her hair.

"That was, back then I...sorry" She lets her head sway slightly as I keep stroking her head, making no obvious effort to stop me.

"It's fine, but if you need to hear in order to let it go. Apology accepted" I respond as I stop patting the pinkette.

"Huh, I keep calling myself a genius, yet I could not see how throwing the leader title on you was troubling you" She responds as she keeps looking at her knees.

"Hm? What makes you think…"

"Be real Naier. You managed to link a missing mask to us getting attacked by rapists. That's not called overthinking it, it's called being paranoid. And you yourself said the reason is because you don't want us to get hurt. I also suspect that 'Us', is just Me and Saeko, seeing as you yourself can get so reckless that's it becomes idiotic..." Saya cuts me off as she finally turns to look at me.

"And while you were being paranoid about our safety, I wanted to pull a 'prank'. Some genius…" She adds as she turns to look back ahead of her, resting her head on her legs.

"Saya, I hate to break it to you, but pranks or not, I will still be paranoid about that certain thing until we are really safe" I respond as I put my hand on her back.

"Because you're an idiot...but. It does make me, a little happy..." She says as she turns her head away from me, lowering her voice even more.

(...)

I bring my left arm from her back to her left shoulder, and pull her towards me. With a short yelp and some slight arm flailing, she ends up with her head on my left leg.

"W, what are you doing...Idiot" Despite her protest though, she wraps her arms around my leg. I ignore her 'protest' and start stroking her head.

"I'm not a damn cat…" Again, despite her words, she closed her eyes and stayed in place…

We silently stayed like that for some time. Until...

"Promise me, that you will survive this" She fondles her head against my leg slightly as she speaks up.

"I want to. I want to spend more time with you. Without these, 'things' waiting outside the front door. To just, be able to watch a movie without worrying…" She tightens her hug around my leg as she speaks.

"Will we even have movies if we manage to drive the corpses back?" I ask as I tilt my head, my hand still on her head.

"It's not like the technology is lost. If we can take back the power plants and factories, repair them and redirect their power and materials or items to locations that are clear of them, of corpses…" Saya stops in the middle of her sentence.

"Uhh, fine watching a movie might be a bit complicated for now, just sitting on the roof to look at the view then, to chat together. I…" She stops again, and gets up to a sitting position.

"You said you always keep your promises. So promise me that, please" She lowers her head slightly as she finishes her sentence.

I took a deep breath, but before I could even say anything...

"Not like this, take your mask off. I want 'you' to promise me. Not the mask" She cuts me off.

I sight slightly and take off my headgear. Then turn to look at Saya.

"I promise" I answer flatly as I keep staring at her eyes…

Saya keeps looking at me for a few seconds, before quickly leaning forward, locking her lips with mine for what must have been less than a second. She then backs off and quickly gets up.

"You better not break it. I don't want my first kiss to be for a broken promise" Saya adds with her back still turned to me, then leaves the room at a quick pace. While I was left there, looking at the door, like an idiot.

(Ok, that, just happened. What's with everybody going after my lips today? First Saeko, now Saya. Maybe I'm still asleep? Giant, friendly squids sounds more realistic than this right now.)

I tilt my head as I get up and start folding the now deflated bed, then head to the second, single one.

(Watching a movie huh. That does sound nice. Maybe I could make her play a video game, God knows I need me some co-op partners, or well, I used to. I'm kinda missing my pc here, and my steam account. Does this world even have Steam and it's meme-able steam sales? I honestly didn't check. I know it has consoles though, as I saw what I think was a PS4 look alike )

"Hmm, I also need to show Saeko how to use her gun…" I whisper to myself as I keep looking at the single inflatable.

"Up here it's a bit too dark, but with a flashlight, it should be fine." I nod to myself as I wear back my mask…

With that, I headed downstairs to find Saeko and Saya chatting with each other, the pool was folded next to the bentos on the counter. Saeko had also dressed up back in her normal attire.

"We set here?" I ask as I walk into the room, causing the girls to turn towards me.

"Yea, you finished with the second inflatable already?" Saya asks.

"No, but I did say I'd show Saeko how to use her gun. So instead of wasting time, she can come and help with the bed while I show her how to use it" I respond.

Saya folds her arms and mumbles as she glances away, obviously not looking very cheery about my 'idea'. Saeko then turns to her.

"You had your private lesson with him for your gun, I can't have mine?" She 'asks'.

"I, I didn't say anything" Saya responded with an obvious pout...

(...That's what I get for playing in two fields at the same time. I need to get this out of the way. Before it festers into something worse)

"Ok, If we are setting rules here, I also have one" I speak up before Saeko could respond, causing both girls to turn to me.

"You two, no infighting" I add up as I fold my arms.

"We're not fighting..." Saya answers with the pout still on her face.

"And let me make another thing clear" I turned to look to my right, towards the tinted glass wall that separated this room from the warehouse.

"You can take it any way you want. But if I have to pick between the two of you…" I stop talking and turn to look at the girls, who were now silently staring at me.

"Then I'm picking none." I add up…

"...You are being really unfair right now" Saya glances away as she keeps her arms folded.

"I know, but I'm not going to make a decision that favors one of you while hurting the other" I respond as I glance at Saya.

"Just wanted to make myself clear, both of you are important to me." I add as I keep looking at the girls.

(I expected something like this to happen sooner or later. But God it leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth. As there ain't a real 'nice' way to solve it. And I can't exactly clone myself... )

Saya then sighs and drops her head, along with her shoulders.

"Uhh, even when it's not really my fault, you still manage to make me feel bad about it…" She lifts her head and looks at me as she raises both her eyebrows, leaving her mouth slightly open.

"Well, he is a sweet talker after all" Saeko butts in with a giggle.

"And a big one at that" Saya adds as she corrects her posture and folds her arms.

"If it keeps you two from pouting at each other..." I respond as I tilt my head.

"Hum, and who's fault do you think that is?" Saya answers with a frown as she leans towards me. I lower my head slightly and raise both arms.

"I got nothing to say to that, because you're right" I responded as I lowered my hands...and then, we stayed silent, sort of switching glances between each other…

"...Ok, this, is getting kind of awkward…" I scratch the back of my head as all three of us stayed in place.

"My gun training?" Saeko asks as she places her hand over the M92 on her hip.

I reflexively turn to Saya as Saeko asks that. She blinks at me a couple of times.

"What are you looking at me for, you want my approval or something?" She asks with a pout.

"Uhh, well, you know…" I respond as I tap my mask.

Saya closes her eyes and shakes her head with a groan.

"You're hopeless…" She pinches the bridge of her nose with her fingers as she speaks. And after a few seconds, she opens her eyes and looks at me.

"F, fine. I'll go deal with the inflatable" She folds her arms and leans towards me.

"But I'm expecting some sort of compensation for doing this" She adds as she narrows her eyes. Then turns around and starts walking towards the hallway without waiting for my reply.

"O...k?" I answered after Saya had left the room…

And after a few seconds of silence.

"Umm, so. Can we?..." Saeko speaks up, glancing around without moving her head as she slowly kept moving her right hand up and down over her left forearm.

"Y, yea. Let so outside, better lighting" I respond with a nod. And start walking…

(Man, that, was weird)

After we got in the back alley I stopped and turned towards Saeko.

"To the Humvee. We can use the corpses on the visible part of the street as targets, no actual shooting for now though, too loud." I motion with my head as I start moving again. Saeko followed behind me in silence...

"Are you bothered about what happened back there?" Saeko asks as she keeps walking behind me.

"I will be lying if I said that I was not expecting it to happen sooner or later with what I'm doing. I mean, nobody really likes 'sharing' in this sort of stuff. But I'm more bothered with the fact that I can't do anything about it, rather than the fact that it happened" I respond as I keep walking.

"Do you regret your decisions?" Saeko asks again as she keeps walking behind me.

"...No. As I said, both of you are important to me" I answer as we reach the Humvee.

"Let's sit on the roof" I add as I climb up the hood, then walk up to the hood and sit down. Saeko ended up sitting next to me shortly after seiza style. She then took the gun out of its holster.

"I'm ready for your lesson..." She says as she extends the hand that held the gun towards me.

"Master" She adds the moment I put my hand on the gun, causing my sight to lift from the gun to her face.

"I'm the master? Oh, we're doomed" I respond with a chuckle as I take the gun, Saeko giggles slightly as she closes her eyes.

"Ok, where do you want to start from?" I ask as I turn my sight back to the M92.

"Hmm, from the beginning please" She responds as she scoots closer to me. Until she was able to lean her shoulder against mine.

(A little closer and she'll be sitting 'on' me with the way she's going…)

"Alright. So let's start with the important things" I bring my finger near the gun's hammer, then under the rear sight, on the cylindrical safety switch and the small 'lever' it has on it.

"Right now the safety is on, you can figure this out from the fact that you can not see a red dot here" I keep pointing at the safety switch as I speak.

"Now this" I flick the switch to the left, causing it to rotate to about forty-five degrees. Under where the small lever used to be, was now a red dot.

"This means the gun can now fire" I say as I point at the red dot, Saeko nods slightly without turning to look at me, her focus completely on the gun.

"Now next, behind the trigger is a small button as you can see here" I flick the safety back on and point at the mag release button.

"This will make the magazine drop. And I mean that literally, it will fall out without you doing anything else if the magazine is looking towards the ground, so keep that in mind. You don't want to end up losing the magazine because you kicked it by accident while you were on the move." I press the eject button and pull the magazine out, then slam it back in.

"Kick it? That's oddly, specific..." Saeko 'asks' as she turns to me.

"I do the stupid mistakes so you don't have to" I respond as I glance at her, Sakeo brings her hand to her mouth and giggles.

"What are these for?" She asks as she points at the two small 'switches' that were over the trigger.

"Right, the first one, the cylindrical one that is furthest from the trigger. Is the disassembly safety lever, or take down lever. You turn that to look 'down' if you want to take the gun apart, as it will let you remove the upper part of the gun. The second, stick looking one, is the slide catch. The slide is the upper part of the gun by" I point at the switches before running my finger along the upper part of the gun, from the front sights, to the rear ones.

"This gun is semi-automatic, that means once you fire the first shot, the next one will enter the chamber automatically, this lever makes it so once the last shot is fired, the slide will stay back. That way, once you add a new mag, you just press it and the slide goes forward, adding a new round in the chamber, rather than having to pull the slide back your self manually" I take out the magazine and pull back the slide as I explain how the slide catch works, then, after the slide itself got locked back, I press the switch, causing the slide to rush forward. Then, I put the magazine back inside and picked up the stray bullet that flew out.

"Hmm, Ok. Look at the gun's rear sight" I then lift the gun and point it towards the street ahead of us. Saeko leans next to my face as she keeps looking at the gun.

"See these two white dots on the back end of the gun?" I ask, she nods.

"That's the rear sight, the one white dot in the front is the front sight" I lower my hand and bring the gun in front of her.

"Take it, try to aim" I say as I glance at the safety, making sure it's on. Saeko nods and takes the gun, then tries to replicate what I did.

"Use both hands, and close one eye" I take her free hand and bring it to the gun's grip, Saeko nods and closes one eye as she keeps aiming the gun.

"Now, try to align the two sights to be in the same height, while making sure that when looking through the middle gap of the rear sights, you see the white dot of the front one" I move behind Saeko as I keep speaking, to get a better look at what she is looking at.

"And now try to align your eye with the rear si…" I stop in the middle of my sentence.

(That would be a bit weird to understand, hmm…)

"Naier?" Saeko, probably because I stopped mid-sentence. Turns to look at me, her cheek almost touching my mask.

"Hmm, try to keep your wrist straight. If you need to move the gun, move it by moving your whole arm from your shoulder when moving up or down. And to move left or right turn your upper body, think of it as trying to be as rigid as possible when aiming. If your joints are loose, then your aim will probably be off, worst, you might end up with the gun slamming your face if the recoil is too strong. Also, try to keep the guns rear sights aligned with the eye you are using to aim, like how you align the front and back sight." I respond as I pat her on the shoulder, She nods and turns to look back at the gun.

"Can this gun get stuck like Saya's?" She asks right after.

"Yea, all guns can jam" I responded.

"If that happens, take the magazine off, and strongly pull back the slide by yourself. Usually the slide itself will not be in the correct position when the gun jams, so you can try to manually bring the slide back and let it go forward a couple of times, this brings the stuck bullet in the chamber most of the time, then insert the magazine back in." I point at the slide as I speak.

"If it's a bullet that got stuck while leaving the gun, you do the same thing again, though that's rarer than a bullet getting stuck while loading 'into' the gun. Realistically for you though, if your gun jams, better use your sword" I add up, Saeko nods at me.

"Also remember, be careful with the magazines, they are essentially how many bullets you can have on you, if one is empty put it back in the mag holster you have on your leg, as it can be reloaded with bullets later" I point at the bottom of the gun as I keep speaking. Saeko nods again.

"You will show me how to load bullets on the magazine?" She asks as she tilts the gun sideways.

"With Saya, she doesn't know how to do that either" I respond, Saeko nods without speaking back.

"Anything else I should know?" She asks once again.

"Always holster your gun with the safety on, if you have the slightest hunch that you might forget to do that, stick with the sword. You don't want the gun blasting a bullet through your leg" Saeko nods at me as she runs her finger on the safety.

"Should I shoot?" She asks.

"Not yet. For now, try reloading the gun" I respond as I shake my head. Saeko nods and does as I ask.

"Once you feel comfortable doing that, try doing it without looking, you want your eyes on the corpses, not the gun" I say as Saeko kept inserting and ejecting the mag…

And like that, we stayed on the roof of the car, Saeko fiddling with the gun, while I stared at the alleyway that led to the road…

-Several minutes later-

(For a residential area, this place has a really small number of dead stuff walking around...)

"You're not done yet?" I hear a new voice behind me, turning to it, I see Saya. The sleeping bags and folded inflatables under her arms, along with two bags, one on each shoulder…

"Damn, you didn't have to carry everything Saya." I respond as I get up, jump down the car and walk up to her, then turn to Saeko and motion her with my head to come. She nods and jumps down the car as well.

"I went the extra mile, so I'm expecting something nice from you now" Saya replies with a slight grin as she narrows her eyes and leans forward.

(Oh you sneaky snek mk2)

I hold myself back from chuckling and take some of the sleeping bags. And after opening the back door, I dump them inside the car.

"What's left?" I ask as I turn around.

"The pool, the bentos and the stove, along with the duffle bag." Saya answers.

"I'll go get them" Saeko speaks up right after.

"Alright. Saya, once we're set with the stuff you have, we'll check the map." I nod at Saeko and turn to look at Saya as I speak.

"Oh and.." Then turn to Saeko again.

"You shoot before we leave" I add as I point my finger at Saeko. She keeps blinking at me for a few seconds...

"I will do my best not to disappoint you" She responds with a smile as she nods, then turns around to walk towards the back of the store.

After that, I took one more of the sleeping bags that Saya was carrying and headed towards the car.

"The map is in your bag?." I ask as I place a sleeping back inside the trunk through the back door.

"Yea" Saya nods slightly as she gives me one of the actual bags.

"I see...Ok. So, what do you want?" I ask as I take the bag and place it in the middle of the two back seats.

"What do you mean?" She asks as she gives me the other bag.

"Your compensation" I replied as I left the bag she just gave me next to the other one.

"Hum, use your brain. Because I'm not telling you" Saya answers with a slight smirk as she glances at me.

"Are you sure about that? I'm not responsible if I botch your 'compensation'" I ask as I raise an eyebrow and turn to look at her.

"Hah, you wish. Botch it and you'll have to do it again" Saya snickers as she tosses me the last sleeping bag.

"Hmm, is that so?" I 'ask' as I put the last sleeping bag in the car.

"Yes, that is so" She answers as her grin widens, leaning forward towards me with her hands on her hips.

"Well, if you want a lifetime of sweaters and socks, then suit yourself" I say as I chuckle and get out. Saya responds with a frown, and brings her face closer to mine.

(Is she honestly trying to look threatening now? Because she just looks cute to be honest)

Just as I was about to speak, Saeko appeared from the corner of the alleyway to my left, carrying the rest of our equipment. After she came up to us, we placed the rest of the stuff inside of the car and then entered it ourselves.

"Sweaters and socks...idiot" Saya whispers as she enters the passenger's seat, takes her bag from the back seats and pulls the map out. I lean towards her as she starts running her finger on the map.

"Ok, what do you have for me?" I ask as I lean closer.

"Uhh. Right now we're here." She points at the right part of the central landmass, on the higher part of the map, near the top end of the central landmass.

"The mansion is here" She then pointed at the left part of the central landmass, a little higher than the center in height.

"The three routes we can take are. Seaside if we go up in the map, if I remember correctly the house with the boat was seaside too, maybe we can use it to rest if we find it on the way. It's also the safest route considering, as corpses can't swim, so we won't have to worry about one side of the road. But it's also the furthest route we can take" She says as she runs her finger along the coastline.

"The second one is going straight from here. This will lead us to the…" She stops talking and places her finger on…

"The mall" I say as I look at where her finger is pointing.

"Yea. I understand if you don't want to take that path. Plus we know the place is overrun, big chance it has a lot of corpses there" Saya adds in a low tone.

"The third one is going down from here. It's the quickest, but we never used these roads. In difference with the other two paths. We don't know if the humvee can drive on them" Saya then turns to me. Blinks a couple of times, and blushes.

"W, when did you get so close!" She leans her upper body away from me as she shoves the map to my face.

"I was sitting here from the moment you opened the map..." I respond with a muffled voice.

"W, well warn me next time you idiot!" She shouts again.

"Saya, I don't think shouting was a good idea" Saeko speaks up as she points at the windshield, several corpses had strayed from the road and were now coming our way.

"Hm, matters not, let's go. Saeko, go over the hatch, fire a couple of shots to get the feel of the gun. Once you're back inside, I'll drive off." I respond as I get back on the driver's seat.

And as Saeko went through the open hatch and aimed the handgun, I started the engine.

(Alright, three paths. So, Which one to take?)