Chapter 7

Austin woke up very early the next morning and came to sit beside me on the floor. He kept mute for a minute or two.

"Hey!" He said yawning aloud and stretching his body.

"Hey" I replied. He kept quite for a while and watch me pieces my gun and assemble it back with keen interest. 

It's been three weeks since the virus broke out with half of the population infected with it. Civilization is gradually going into extinction since there's no communication network anymore, the city already shut down it's power system two days after the virus broke out and now, surviving is not an easy task since food and water are now scarce.

"Will she survive it?" Austin's voice jolt me out of my thoughts.

"I'm gonn' be honest with you, I've never seen someone survive a scratch from an infected for 2 hours, but her case is different. She survived a bite for 2 days now. It's really weird" I told him. He looked me for some time and asked 

"You mean to say she will survive it?" 

"I'm not sure, but there might be a chance" I replied. I've watched her closely through the night, I was expecting the seizures that happens before the death of the victim, but she just slept throughout the night. 

We heard someone wince behind us and we both saw Clara sitting up on the mat. She's awake! She yawned tiredly and winced at the pain she felt from her hand. 

Austin hurried over to her side checking her all over as if he's looking for something strange. I joined them and felt her temperature, It's returning back to normal. This is strange I thought, or should I say it's a miracle?

"How you feeling?" I asked 

"My head aches badly and my arm hurts as fuck" she replied . I could see happiness written all over Austin's face, I've not seen him smile since yesterday, but he did just now.

" You're hungry?" Austin asked and she nodded positively. He provided some Cheez It crackers from his bag and gave some to her. He passed some to me too and provided a Bottle of Orange fruit juice from his bag. I ate the crackers and smiled at the familiar salty taste it has . Where the hell did they get all this from? I wondered. 

She requested for a drink and Austin opened the Orange juice and passed it to her. I stopped munching and watch her drink with close observation. If the virus is still active in her system, she won't be able take in any liquid. I watched her drink and returned the bottle to Austin, I was expecting her to vomit the drink back with blood, but nothing happened. 

Is it that some set of people are immune to this virus? I thought. The more think about it, the more confusing it gets. 

We finished our meal and I went outside to were I parked the truck the previous day. Austin followed behind and with Clara who leaned on him. I gave her some antibiotics immediately after meal to swallow and some painkillers too. I really need to get more from painkillers whenever I go to a pharmacy, that's if I see it there.

"You're leaving?" Austin asked me as I opened the truck's bonnet to check the engine oil.

"Yeah" I replied. I closed the truck's bonnet and look him straight in the eye, I know he's not happy with me leaving.

"I gotta go find my friends" I added placing one hand on his shoulder. He looked down at his feet for a while and then suddenly brightened up.

"Then we're coming with you" he said. I was surprised as I wasn't expecting it. 

"It's dangerous out there" I said trying to convince him to stay back, his sister is sick and that might be another problem.

"We're not scared of the dangers, we've survived for the past three weeks on our own and we're still breathing" he replied. I don't think he's gonna accept staying back.

" Fine!" I said " you can come along if that's what you want" I saw him brighten up a little as I open the driver's side door. I put my backpack inside the truck and went back inside to collect the rest of my things. Austin also gathered his supplies, outing it behind the truck.

Austin and Clara sat beside me in the truck as we hit the highway that leads to Star City. Although I don't have anywhere in mind, but it's unusual for me to stay in a place for too long.

It's been 3 hours of driving now without having a destination in mind, Clara was fast asleep on Austin's shoulders and the later just looked at the infected roaming the side of the road through the window.

My mind drifted to the time when everything was normal and there's no virus or infection anywhere. The highway was always busy with people driving in and out of the city. How I wish life could be back to normal, I thought.

I was still deep in thought when Austin called my attention to a warehouse by the road side. I step on the brakes and the tires screech loudly at the effect, jolting Clara from her sleep. 

"What the hell?" She cursed. I didn't mind her, I just looked at the signboard at the front of the warehouse. It's a multipurpose warehouse, i switched off the truck's engine and surveyed the area with my eyes. By now, Austin has briefed Clara on what's happening and by the look of things, she's way better than when we started the journey. Her temperature is back to normal and I think she's gonna make it. The only thing left is the weakness she's still feeling.

We came down from the truck with me grabbing my lucky axe and my backpack. I tucked my Beretta into my belt and got my axe ready in hand. I saw Austin arming himself with his Kimber Custom TLE II (EM) 1911 pistol and a blade he produced from his backpack. Clara took her katana from the back of the truck and used it to support herself as she walked . 

Austin went to scan the backyard while Clara and I waited in front of the building. He soon came back to us and told us it was safe. We tried breaking the padlock used in securing the front entrance, but it was too strong, so we had to use the back exit. We broke the padlock there also and went into the warehouse.

The warehouse was a very big a spacious one with different goods ranging from clothes to canned food and snacks arranged on pallets. The goods there are so much that I couldn't stop staring. The warehouse has different sections for different goods. There were about eight forklift parked in the warehouse while some still have pallets with goods on it. 

Austin switched on his flashlight so we could see more clearly. We decided to search the warehouse to see if it's free of infected. 

We decided to split into 2 groups as we have lots of grounds to cover. Clara chose to be with me as she's still too weak to move alone. We scanned the grocery section while Austin went to search the clothes section. In less than 3 minutes, we got back to were we left.

We decided to take the things we really need first, as that's our priority for now. We started from the grocery section were we saw thousands of canned food on pallets. We filled our bags with enough and Austin provided a bag he got from one of the forklifts and poured his loot inside. He went to drop it behind the truck and soon returned inside filling another sack with groceries. 

We went to the clothing section to get ourselves some change of cloth. I was glad to find a pair of khaki trouser and 2 pairs of camou top and a jacket to match. I got a pair of new sneakers and I saw Austin raising a pair of Nike sneakers up as well. Well, we need it. 

We heard a sound nearby and we all turned to the direction it came from only to see Clara opening a granola bar.

"Wtf?" Austin mouthed to her. She shrugged and replied "Sorry" rolling her eyeballs .

I opened a certain box and found all sorts of first aid treatment in it. I grabbed some disinfectant and painkillers with antibiotics and stuffed my bag with it too.

We left the were house and got back into the vehicle, that was when I realize we're running short on gas. Austin came down from the truck and went to the vehicles parked nearby to see if he could get fuel. 

I came down from the truck and helped him look out for infected. He saw a gallon of gas from a certain truck and brought it back. 

In less than five minutes we refilled the truck with gas and soon hit the road. We decided to set up base in Galaxy City's College (GCC) as there's no much daylight left. 

We parked the truck in the car park close to the hostel and decided to scan the building first, we can't take any chances. 

I armed myself with my lucky axe as usual while Austin armed himself with my machete. Clara held onto her Katana even though she's not that strong, she still had to hold a weapon.

We move stealthily into the hostel's corridor paying attention to everything around us. We took the stairs that leads to the second floor scanning every where with eyes as sharp as that if an eagle.

There were scratches on the wall. The wall was smeared with blood and some of the rooms have their doors opened. We made sure we checked every room we come across. We opened doors after doors to check for infected.

We opened a particular door, but it was locked. Clara knocked and what we heard from inside were we heard angry growls and groans.

"You don't want to know what's in there" i said to her before she could even think of breaking in.

We continued upstairs till we got to the fifth floor which was the last. We got to the roof top to see if there's anything there, but found nothing. We decided to sleep at the last floor incase if anything goes wrong, it would be easy to find out and get away on time instead of sleeping at the top floor where it would be difficult to get away when there's an attack.

We got downstairs and then heard a loud thud in one of the hostels nearby.

"Did you hear that?" Clara observed.

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TBC