NOVEL NEXT Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Safe Zones?
"Everyone fully packed?". Muku asked the girls as he put his bloated backpack back on his back.
"Yes". They all replied.
"Good, now let's get out of here, I noticed a clothes shop close by, I think we all would appreciate a change of clothes". He added to which all the girls' eyes lit up. No girl can deny clothes after all.
"Let's hurry up then!". Jade was the first one to respond and speed out of the store. The others quickly followed after her, Muku just looked on with a speechless expression at their reaction before quickly following after them.
...
In the clothes shop....
All the girls chose shot skirts with tights and loose fitting t-shirts. This, in Jade's case made Muku rather disappointed because she moved her legs quite a lot when she fought which was always a sight to behold for him. He could basically describe her underwear just from memory at that point. Of course Jade didn't know all of this or who knows what she would have done. Muku chose a gray tracksuit with tears of joy streaming down his face due to happiness of finally being out of a student's uniform.
(A/N: I'm not a fashionista so please excuse my bland clothes descriptions)
When they got out, a few unranked spiders had made it to the lizard bodies. But since they were too busy with their already prepared meal, they didn't bother with them and so they managed to get away without a fight.
"Now, on to the next target, Layla's place, and we'll try to find Hope's family as well... though now that I think about, we haven't seen any people since we got here, did they all congregate someone or something?" Muku spoke and made his enquiries known.
"I was wondering the same as well and like I said before, we don't have to go to my place". Layla said.
"Yeah well, too bad because we're going. And for the people, I'm sure we'll find out eventually". Muku answered with a smile on his face. He was determined to go to Layla's house. Even if things with her foster mother were as she said, she still had taken care of her. And Layla wasn't firmly rejecting the idea, which suggested that she also wanted to go and was likely just being considerate to those who were closer to their families. Muku had noticed that she had a tendency to make sure everyone else's needs were met before hers. But as a good teacher, he wouldn't let her be unfair to herself.
Layla realised that he wouldn't relent so could only give up on her idea to prioritize others. And so they're journey continued. And they happened to go in the direction of the hawk-eyed man's group. Whether it was a coincidence or intentional, only Muku and Jade knew. Both of them had sensed non hostile gazes from there after all, Jade had even noticed two vague human images. Since it was in the general direction they where going anyway, they thought they might as well check it out.
They got infront of the building, it was a three story residential building. The people in it seemed to have hidden when they saw them coming their way.
"Are you going to keep on hiding like rats!?". Muku screamed out a bit, which surprised the girls other than Jade. They hadn't sensed the people from the building nor been told about it. What made them even more confused was how nobody responded.
"Fine, if that's what you want. But we're going to have a real problem if you keep on spying on us!". Before the confused girls could ask him who he was shouting at, he shouted again. This time though, to their surprise, someone really did respond.
"We're sorry for our rudeness, we'll come out, give us a few seconds." A voice called out. As it said, in less than a minute, five men of varying ages came out of the building holding different weapons. From baseball bats to steel bars and the one in front who had a wooden axe (obviously the blade was metal). As for how effective their weapons would be against beasts. Everyone knew the answer to that one, but they should still be very useful against humans.
"Care to introduce yourself?". Muku asked, the men were just staring at his group curiously, especially at the girls behind him. Luckily nobody seemed to have any lustful thoughts at the moment, or Muku might have had to break a few legs. As for why he asked the other group to introduce themselves first, it was because they were the ones who were rudely spying on his group after all.
"Oh, right, you can call me Adam, I'm the leader of these four and we're one of the food gathering groups from the Stadium safe zone". Adam, who was a black haired man who seemed to be in his early thirties with aura of a leader, introduced himself. As for why he didn't name his group...the author is just too lazy to give them names if he doesn't have to...
"Is that so...wait, what's this safe zone you're talking about?". Muku asked curiously, the girls were also curious.
"As I thought, you really aren't from the city...well at least not since the apocalypse began". Adam said, forgetting to answer what he was asked.
"Mr Adam, we don't have all day" Muku said, slightly annoyed at being ignored like that.
"Oh, right, sorry about that. You, see when the apocalypse began, after the imposing voice said evolve or die, another, feminine and robotic voice sounded in all our heads. It said, I'm going to quote this part, "[Number of people in relatively close proximity to each other detected to be more than ten thousand. Two temporary safe zones to be generated. Locations 'sports stadium' and 'local university' designated as safe zones until Level 3].". Adam paused for a bit to catch his breath. Then continued...
"Most at the time were still confused, but after seeing the people around them getting massacred most of us ran subconsciously ran toward these two areas. And when we arrived we noticed that the stadium was completely enveloped by a green barrier. Of course we were apprehensive to touch the thing, but with beasts behind us, we could only continue forward. And magically we didn't slam into it but passed right through, while the beasts slammed on it. Adams stopped for a bit again before continuing...
"From then, the beasts sticked around fir a few hours before heading back into the city to hunt those who hadn't made it to the barrier. The lucky people who managed to make it to the barrier are around two thousand if I had to say. The rest are either dead, still in the city, ran out of the city or in the other safe zone we haven't been to so I can't say how many are there. From then, after a day, we realised there was a big problem with our safe zone, it had no food. And so volunteers would be sent out to gather food in turns. With that, here we are, we noticed your group when we were scouting that shop. And I swear we had no ill intent." Adam finally finished speaking.
"Hmm, interesting, what do you think girls?, should we go check it out?". Muku said eyes full of curiosity, he didn't really care about the people, just wanted to see the barrier.
"Sure" they all agreed, they wanted to see the barrier as well.
"Who knows, we might even see some familiar faces there". Muku said, as for why he didn't say "see some family members", he didn't want to get anyone's hopes too high, especially Hope's.
"Yeah, and it would be pretty nice to sleep without keeping your guard up". Jade added as the others agreed. None of them had been able to completely relaxed ever since the killer dogs attacked.