“Hey, you!” Sako shouts as she jumps out from the trees. Clearly, she didn’t learn her lesson from before. Or maybe she has, because I see her already pointing the revolver right at their faces, her finger on the trigger.
Immediately, both figures put their hands in the air, and Sako cautiously moves closer. As much as I don’t want to, I reveal myself and trail close behind. I am also ready to shoot at any moment; my finger reflexively shaped like a gun by my side.
When we’re close enough to see them clearly, we realize it’s a female and a male. The female is a woman, most likely in her twenties, and is even taller than I am. The real difference is that she’s a fully-fledged adult with a well-endowed, curvy figure. Sako might be pretty, but this woman is downright gorgeous. I can’t help but wonder how these people stay beautiful even without the luxury of makeup. It’s the end of the world, isn’t it? Does Sephora have apocalypse hours?
As for the boy, he’s definitely younger than us. Maybe a middle schooler? I can tell he’s horrified because he’s standing behind the woman like she’s his mom. Maybe she is. As soon as Sako notices this, she quickly drops the gun to her side. Sometimes, she’s a bit too trusting. Aren’t mother bears way more dangerous when there’s a cub by their side?
“Sorry about that,” Sako says with a pleasant smile. “It’s just that we had a bad encounter with some other people not long ago.”
The woman looks down at the kid, then back at us. Their clothes are a little tattered, but not awfully so. I can tell that they haven’t been out here for very long.
“Sorry about going through your stuff,” the woman says. “We thought this was someone’s abandoned campsite.”
“It’s no prob!” Sako says. “We just got done some raiding of our own, though the place we were at was definitely abandoned.”
“You guys are from the bunker, aren’t you?” the woman asks.
“Yeah, we are,” Sako says. “My name is Sako, and this is Lily.”
“Yeah, I thought you looked familiar,” the woman says. “My name is Maeve, and this is my younger brother, Riley.”
I see the boy step out and nod his head toward us, but remain silent. Well, I guess I’m kind of doing the same. Letting the extroverts do all the talking.
“Oh, wow. I thought you were his mom, Miss Maeve,” Sako says.
“Do I really look that old?” Maeve chortles. “I’m only 26, you know.”
“You are drop-dead gorgeous, ma’am,” Sako says.
Why did she get so formal all of a sudden? Seriously, you don’t have to go out of your way to compliment her like that. That kind of flattery is downright annoying, and won’t get you anywhere during an alien invasion.
“I believe we were in the room next to yours,” Maeve said.
“Funny, I never saw you around,” I say. Also funny how the first thing I greet them with is skepticism. Rightfully so, but still.
“We rarely left the room,” Maeve said. “I was hoping this whole thing would blow over, but it never did. Now, we’re here. We left the bunker for the first time earlier today.”
“Why did you wait so long?” Sako asked.
“We didn’t really have a choice,” Maeve said. “Food was running sparse, and I didn’t like the look in the eyes of the other survivors. I was afraid of another incident happening again, so I took Riley and ran.”
“By incident, do you mean those two guys?” I ask.
“Yeah. The murderers,” Maeve says. “If it wasn’t for you two, we probably would be dead right now.”
“What do you mean?” Sako asks.
“We heard your confrontation with them through the walls,” Maeve says. “Afterward, it seems they didn’t kill anyone else for a while, but we knew it was only a matter of time. So, we corroborated with the other residents of the bunker over the course of several weeks and finally chased them out.”
“How did you organize something like that without them finding out?” Sako asks.
“That’s thanks to your friend’s bluff, actually,” Maeve says. “You see, I transferred all my EP to Riley here so he could create an ability that would allow him to telepathically talk to anyone in a certain range. Using this skill, we revealed their true nature to everyone else and planned an attack against them. Unfortunately, they got away in the end.”
“Wait, you can transfer EP to other people?” I ask.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“You didn’t know that?” Maeve asks. “Didn’t your angels tell you?”
“As a matter of fact, they didn’t,” I say.
“Might’ve slipped my mind,” I hear Angel say in the back of my head.
“Even now, I’m worried that those two men are still lurking around,” Maeve says. “It’s been a few weeks, but if we run into them, there’s nothing we can do. The day we confronted them, a few people died against their crazy abilities. And there were dozens of us.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about them,” Sako says smugly, eyeing me. “Lily here took care of them.”
“What? Really? How?” Maeve asks.
“Because she’s super strong and brave, and can do anything!” Sako says.
“I just shot them,” I say bluntly.
“Oh, I see,” Maeve says. “I suppose it makes sense that guns will work on them.”
“Honestly, if I didn’t take them by surprise, we probably wouldn’t have survived,” I say.
“Nuh-uh,” Sako says in a mockingly deep voice. “We survived two encounters with them because of you. That means Lily is statistically stronger than them.”
“I don’t think that’s correct,” I say. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”
“Hey, you two! Would you like to stay the night with us?” Sako asks. “It’s getting dark, and we have a ton of spare squirrel.”
“If it’s not too much trouble, then we would greatly appreciate it,” Maeve says.
That night, we sit around the fire. It’s kind of awkward–at least for me, and I assume the boy, Riley, I think his name was. As for the other two, they’re chatting up a storm about random crap no one would care about otherwise.
“Oh, by the way, what’s that place you were scavenging through earlier?” Maeve asks. “Is it safe? Me and Riley are looking for somewhere to settle down and regain our bearings.”
“It was another bunker,” Sako says. “It was much smaller and had holes in it. And a body.”
“A body?” Maeve asks. “It must have been the HET. I noticed a few days ago that there’s a new strain in the database that lives underground. Can dig through almost anything.”
“That’s probably what those holes were,” I say. “If I had to guess based on that notebook, I’d say that they were slowly tunneling through the concrete walls. The father knew something was wrong and told his family to pack their things, but it was too late. The HET attacked everyone else while he locked himself in his room. Then, he took his own life.”
“That would explain why there was a bullet missing from the revolver we found,” Sako says.
“Wait, you found that gun today?” Maeve asks. “I thought Lily shot those guys weeks ago.”
“She did,” Sako says. “She has her own secret gun.”
Don’t say it like that.
“Oh! And one more thing,” I say. “In his journal, the man says he took his family and drove away on the day the HET attacked, but we didn’t see any trace of a car there. There was also an empty room with no backpack. If I’m correct, I think that means someone down there got away.”
“I didn’t see any tire tracks or hint that there was a car parked around the entrance, though,” Sako says.
“Which means that it happened a while ago,” I say. “Before the AE virus and Project AIGODS.”
“You’re saying the bunkers were never safe?” Maeve asks.
“It seems so,” I say. “Or maybe… what if they’ve been adapting to us? It would make sense since they’re intent on hunting us down.”
“That’s a pretty bold theory you got there,” Maeve says, throwing me a satisfied look. “You’re pretty smart, aren’t you?”
“No, it just reminded me of… well, never mind,” I say. I cannot tell them that I’m thinking of the Chimera Ants from Hunter x Hunter.
“Lily’s actually a secret genius,” Sako says. “She acts stupid sometimes, but I think she’s actually really smart.”
“Hey, you don’t have to be so cheesy all the time,” I say. “Besides, you’re the one who’s a survival expert. If anyone’s really smart, it’s you.”
“So, I’ve been meaning to ask this for a while now, but…” Maeve starts. “Are you two girlfriends?”
“Yep! The best of friends!” Sako says.
She’s pretty dumb, isn’t she?
“No, it’s not like that,” I say. “What makes you say that?”
“I dunno, the way that you dote on each other?” Maeve asks. “You’ve been doing it all night.”
“Wait, you meant it like that!?” Sako exclaims, her face flushed a bright pink. “No! Of course not!”
“Aw, a pity,” Maeve says. “I think you’d look cute together. If that’s the case, then maybe I’ll take a shot with Lily. With a brain like hers, it would be a waste not to.”
Courage alert, cougar alert! Step off, Miss; I have no interest in women whatsoever.
“You can’t have her,” Sako says, yanking me to her by the arm. “She’s mine. I won’t let any man OR woman take her away from me. Isn’t that right, Lily?”
“I’m not anyone’s property,” I say, pulling away. “Anyway, where are you two planning to go in the morning?”
“You can stick with us, if you want,” Sako says. “As long as you promise to keep your hands to yourself.”
“Thanks for the offer, but we’ve got to keep moving,” Maeve says. “And I suggest you don’t stay around here much longer, either. The world is getting more and more dangerous, and you won’t be able to keep going like this.”
For some reason, I know she’s right.
While we have yet to see one of these HET, I can tell that our preconceived notions of them might be completely off the mark. I mean, we really don’t know anything about them. Who would have guessed that the safe havens we built to protect ourselves from nuclear bombs would prove ineffective against this enigmatic enemy? I doubt living in the forest as wild women will do us good much longer.
It’s only a matter of time…