Samantha clutched Nova in her arms and left with the others. There was only one thing that kept her going—finding a place to hide while waiting for Adrian to save them.Monsters lurked throughout the streets. Eira, Ivy, and Nyssa surrounded Samantha and Nova, guiding them past the monsters."We should get out of Swallowston and find somewhere safe outside the city to hide. But on second thought, Adrian won’t be able to find us when he gets back to Swallowston, so I've decided against it and chose to remain here. Let's hope we'll hear from him soon," Ivy said as she looked toward the surroundings. Without a doubt, Ivy was now their leader. She was a powerful fighter with Eira and Nyssa obeying her every command. Without her, Samantha and Nova would be bullied by wicked people in the safe zone, if not killed by the monsters. Adrian's past grace had proven extremely crucial for their current survival, and Samantha chose to follow Ivy without a doubt. Gloria was no longer the same wo
Matthias wolfed down his bread and wiped his mouth. "I'm almost done, sir. Give me another hour and we the communicators should be ready. However, the signal range is limited at the moment. It’s no longer than twelve kilometers.""That's good enough. We'll need to send in our men to scout our areas, and it’s dangerous to go in blind."Matthias nodded. "I'll have them ready as soon as possible.""Good.”Oliver walked over and handed Adrian a slab of meat that some engineers had bought from a supermarket and left it at the base for good. However, Adrian took a packet of compressed biscuits and said, "Distribute the meat to everyone. Make sure that our rations are distributed fairly so that nobody is discontent.”Food was precious to everyone at the moment, and it would only become even more scarce in the future. They were all eating leftovers and emergency rations, and there was little hope of finding more food from the land at the moment. If their rations ran out, everyone would be
Adrian said as he got to his feet, "Well done, Matthias. Please distribute the communicators to everyone and decide on a channel for us to use. We’ll depart after you're done."Matthias nodded and handed out the communicators.Adrian climbed atop a trailer to look at the nearby village.Cian appeared beside him and asked, "Is something wrong, sir?" Adrian pointed up ahead and said, "That’s Cloud Village. Pass through there and we'll reach Gold Haven, and then Rivton shortly after. We have to be cautious as we move through the village. There may be traps."Cian nodded. "Do you think the villagers would want to hurt us in such a situation?""You can’t let your guard down, Cian. Kindness is a virtue, but we have to be careful of who we choose to be kind to. This is especially true in situations like these. We can’t show others how kind we are, or have you forgotten what many did when Chase Gardner started that bout of rumors?"With half the world's population gone, Adrian was cert
The village that laid ahead of them was Cloud Village.Cian took a deep breath. "Sir, we're almost there. Should we continue on?"Adrian looked at the forest up front. Starved of sunlight, the leaves on the trees were yellowing and falling after. If this went on for longer, the trees would surely die. "It's too quiet up ahead, and I believe those are monster carcasses around the village. I’ll have the combatants get on top of their trailers and stay alert.""Yes, sir."The six trailers responded to Adrian's instructions. As they cautiously entered the forest, they caught a whiff of a foul stench. Rozi said through her communicator, "There are bodies in the forest, human bodies.""Stop," Adrian commanded, and the trailers came to a halt. "I'm going down to take a look. Watch our surroundings." He jumped down from his trailer and followed the stench.Adrian came across dozens of bodies on the ground. In their decayed state, they emitted the foulest of stench. Several suitcases
The trailers stopped at the village borders, and everyone formed a defensive line around their trailers upon getting out.Adrian walked into the village, with Cian following behind him. "Send ten men into the village and search for survivors. They should look out for resources like food, water, weapons, etc. After twenty minutes, they are to return, and I want them all to be on the alert while searching. Everyone else shall remain by their trailers in case we get jumped," Adrian ordered. Cian began making the arrangements. A team of men entered the village, going through every house in search of survivors. Aside from heading to Novemton, Adrian also wanted to save the survivors he found along the way. Rozi stayed behind with the others at the trailers. Since she and Adrian were the strongest fighters in the group, it was best they defended separate positions instead of sticking together. Monster carcasses were scattered all over and many houses had been destroyed. There were b
Either whatever she was protecting had been taken away or was still hiding inside the house somewhere. Adrian was unable to determine what happened as the house was a complete mess."Is anyone here?" Adrian softly asked, only to be greeted by silence."Sir, I doubt there's anyone left here," a young man next to Adrian said.Adrian gestured for him to remain silent. The young man shut his mouth, while Adrian stood there paying attention to even the slightest noise. Sure enough, he could hear someone breathing. He was positive there was someone in the house.Following the sound, Adrian got down on his knees. Running his fingers along the floor, he found a slit in the floorboards wide enough for his fingers to slip through and pull them up. Lo and behold, he found a nine-year-old little girl balled up underneath the boards.The child was hiding in a hole that had been dug up out of desperation. It was just barely big enough for her to fit inside. The girl's mother quickly closed the
Adrian carried Miraya out of the house, while Cian and the others searched the rest of the village. Unfortunately, there were no other survivors, nor were there any resources. However, they were all happy when they saw Miraya. To them, it was a miracle to find even one survivor."Sir, we've searched the whole village," Cian said as he and Oliver walked over.Adrian placed Miraya on the floor and said, "Rozi, take care of her and give her some food."Rozi was the only woman in Adrian's group, and Miraya looked a lot less wary when she saw her. The little girl felt as though she was looking at her mother when she saw Rozi's beautiful smile.After Rozi brought Miraya into her trailer, Adrian asked, "How did it go? Did you find anything else?"Oliver shook his head. "Everything has been taken. There are corpses in some of the houses. They were shot to death. There are also signs of monster damage. It’s clear the village engaged the monsters in battle. After that, some people began to
Rozi quickly held Miraya in her arms and softly said, "It's okay. I'm here."Miraya calmed down a little, feeling safer now that she was in Rozi's embrace. After a moment, she said in a hoarse voice, "Many villagers disappeared, including my papa. We were playing, and suddenly… I don't know what happened. Many monsters showed up afterward and killed many of the villagers. Mommy was really scared and dug a hole for me to hide in.""What happened after that?" Rozi asked. "The men in the village went to kill the monsters, but they were injured. They managed to kill the monsters, but another group of men with guns came and killed them. Mommy told me to hide in the hole. The bad men killed her." This incident had become a trauma Miraya would never forget. Adrian felt his anger rising after hearing her story. He controlled it and patted Miraya's head. "I promise I’ll make the people who hurt your mother pay."Miraya did not know who Adrian was nor what he wanted to do. However, she