"The apartment is clear now," Tian Ai silently whispered.
"Awesome." Yue pulled over his bag and tightened it. The gun bag was still hanging on his front. He walked up to his sister with a bright smile. "We found rice,"
"Good." Without any other word, she moved to the front door.
Yue followed behind her like a loyal puppy. But there was no sound of footsteps behind him. He glanced back with a small frown.
Juda was standing by the kitchen counter with a weird look on her face.
'There is nothing on the counter. What is she looking at?'
Lui had her mouth wide open.
"What's wrong? Did you get hurt?" he worriedly glanced at Juda's fingers. They were perfectly trimmed but there was no cut on it.
"N—nothing.. Shall we get going?"
"Hmm..."
It was weird how she did not answer him. Even weirder was that she kept strangely peered at her open palm and fingertips. 'Something happened... sigh she will tell us when she wants to,'
Lui pulled Juda out and they entered the apartment opposite them. This place's layout was similar to the one they came through but the décor here was simple, dark walls with grey contrasting furnitures.
The rotting stench hit them right as they entered.
Yue flinched back slightly.
A corpse laid on the grey sofa with its legs at an odd angle. There was a small puncture wound on the man's forehead. Black blood was dripped down from it.
Tian Ai suddenly moved up front and close to him. "Careful. I have a weird feeling that someone or something is watching us,"
Yue glanced at her with a deep frown. "You did not find anyone else?"
"No, just that one...."
"Let's not stay here any longer..." he urged the two to move on towards the French windows on the other side. It opened to a spacious balcony that was very close by to the nearby building.
Tian first jumped over and checked the terrace. After she okayed it, Lui and Juda climbed over.
Yue stayed back them keeping a keen watch.
"Come over, I'll cover your back," Tian stood by the balcony with her gun ready at hand.
Zou Yue climbed the railing of the balcony and was about to climb on the wall.
'Why are houses built like this? It's not safe at all, ah. Any burglar could easily come into this house.' he thought to himself as he was climbing in the wall.
All of a sudden the small hair on the back of his neck stands up.
"Yue! Behind you!" Tian shouted.
He glanced back swiftly. Something small and dark dashed at him at high speed. He was only able to make out its shadow.
Yue and Tian shot at it. But that little thing evaded their combined attack.
The small shadow attacked once again, successfully knocked out his gun. Yue was left without a weapon.
It bounced on the wall and swished at him.
He swiftly dodged to the side, but it caught a hold of his bag strap and clung to him.
Yue panicked. He blindly struggled to get it off.
"shit!" Tian was not able to get a clear shot because it was too close to his body. "Use your knife, darn it!"
Only then did his mind clear up from the panic. He pulled out his knife from his waist belt, ready to cut through it.
"Meow..." a small sound froze his moves.
He glanced down to see a black cat hanging on his bag straps. It was slightly chewing on it with its milky white teeth.
"Huh...." Yue pulled it off.
"Meow~" it cutely nuzzled against his palm.
"It's a cat..."
It was soft and weightless. He could even feel the cat's bones poking against his fingertips. 'It must be starving...'
"Hold it still. I'll shoot that thing," Tian took Aim.
"Wait, wait, it's just a normal cat. It's not infected,"
The cat's eyes were bright and there were no signs of being infected. After all, the second meteor is yet to hit earth.
That meteor was the reason the animals and plants mutated. Until then, the animal were harmless.
"Yue, toss that thing away and come here," Tian grumbled.
"okay okay," he placed the cat down. "Cutie, don't attack people like that,"
The cat nuzzled against his legs and mewed pitifully.
"Yue we have to move on." Tian gestured for him to jump over.
"Wait a minute," he ran back into the house, towards the other apartment. The kitchen was well stocked with cat food. He dragged a bag out the girl's apartment into the dead man's apartment.
The cat watched him licking its lips.
He tore open the bag.
It instantly climbed on it and chowed down on the dry pellets.
"Yue!" Tian jumped back into the house with a deep glare. "We are getting late,"
"yes... sorry I got distracted," Yue smiled sweetly at her.
Tian shook her head with a small smile on her face. "J-just hurry along."
"Yes~"
They both jumped out of the house onto the nearby terrace. The cat ran after them to the balcony mewed even loudly with a cute look.
Taking one last look at the small cat, he sprinted after his group.
After an hour of parkour, they came close to the supermarket opposite the hotel he stayed in.
A four way crossroad separated them from their desired destination.
"We have to climb down," Tian leaned over and glanced around. The zombies on the street were minimum.
Most of them had moved towards the college campus and some of them moved closer to the direction of the meteor.
Yue slightly frowned. "Why do they go towards that meteor.... whets attracting them?"
"Heat perhaps?" Tian whispered softly.
"no....that must not be it,"
In his last life, except the fire ability zombies, he had noticed that most zombies evade fire. They developed sense of smell, vision and hearing but their rotting bodies never felt pain. Yet still they were all afraid of fire somehow.
It was because the virus dies off intense heat.
Only because of this reason, most fire ability users were set as vanguards when the teams went out to collect supplies.
'If they are so scared of heat, why do they all migrate close to that?'
"There is an emergency stairwell here. Let's go down," Tian slightly nudged his arm.
Yue still peered at the crowd of zombies that were migrating in groups towards that rock. 'Only Qian Wen can answer this mysterious behaviour. I'll ask him when we reach G,'
He ran after his sister.
They descended vigilantly.
This building was also an apartment complex, but since the apocalypse hit midday in a weekday, most of the houses were abandoned.
Even so, a few zombies roamed about in the stairwell. It must be the people who ran in panic after the zombies awakened.
Yue and Tian took the front positing killing the zombies.
They only used their knives, not the guns, because they had a very long journey ahead and using the bullets on these basic zombies will be a waste.
Soon they reached the ground floor.
"I'll check the street," he opened the door and slowly peaked out. Three zombies loafed around near the crossing of the street. "Three up ahead. Tian, I have no visual to my side,"
"I'll cover you," Yue made sure that Lui and Juda were in the centre while they both stood on both sides.
The three zombies noticed them instantly and ran towards them.
Yue rushed up front, slashing them as they came. He gestured for them to stay while he checked the other road that led to the supermarket.
Surprisingly, there were only twenty or so zombies there. If they moved strategically, they might be able to enter the supermarket.
But there was also another problem. They had Lui and Juda.
Lui can handle herself well, but Juda won't able able to run away from so many.
'I'll ask Tian what to do,' Yue gestured for her to follow.
Tian guarded the two girls well as they crossed the road.
Yue hid in a corner. "Shall we go in or shall we settle down first in a safe house," he whispered while throwing a look at Juda.
Tian nodded subtly.
"We'll go in directly. Then I'll go pick up my motorcycle. It's near the pizza restaurant," Tian whispered softly.
"I'll come with you." Yue instantly said.
She just frowned slightly. "No,"
"We need two motorcycles. I'll come with you,"
Tian grumbled slightly and agreed.
As per plan, they moved towards the supermarket stealthily by hiding behind the abandoned cars and vehicles.
Juda was safely protected on all sides. Tian up front, Yue in the back and Lui to the side.
The twenty zombies did not seem to notice them.
The store had glass doors that automatically open when a customer's came close.
This was the worst kind of place to take shelter in doing the apocalypse.
He touched Tian's hand and drew a number ten.
'We can't stay there more than ten minutes,'
Tian understood his cues. She nodded.
As a group, they moved silently to the door. The glass door opened as soon as they stepped on the carpet up front.
They swiftly ran in and hid behind a huge store shelf.
His brown eyes peered through the small gaps to toward the door. The zombies only took a small look at the door that was now open and continued just standing there.
'Thank god….'
Yue and Tian first ventured in, checking very corner. Almost all of the shelves were empty, and the floor was covered with rotten blood.
'Someone already came and looted all the stuff..' he sighed.
Only a few chips, chocolates and soda cans by checkout counter near the door were available.
Yue silently watched the open door. Right after it closed, he swiftly ran to it and picked a handful of chip bags. The plastic cover crinkled loudly just form a single touch.
'Ah, why did these things have to be so loud!' he stuffed it in his stuffed bag. The zipper would not close. 'Close darn it...'
"Yue...." Tian poked his back. "Yue.... stop..."
Yue looked up.
All the zombies were looking his way, drooling blood.