Rosa groaned at the static sound of the radio in the car. There was ringing in her ears before clarity returned to her sight.
W-what happened?
Rosa clutched her head when a sharp pain made her wheeze. She checked her palms when she felt them wet and sticky. There was blood on her fingers, and there were multiple lacerations on her limbs. Not only that, glass shards pierced her skin, and a bone was sticking out from her leg.
S-shit . . .
She panicked because she couldn't use magic. Was she going to die now? The thought scared her enough to put tears in her eyes, and her body shook uncontrollably.
"Calm down . . . ," Saxa rasped. "Used your items . . . it should work."
Rosa's attention flickered at the front. Myla was drinking a potion, and half her body that was almost sliced into two by a thin metal plate was slowly regenerating.
Same for Fjord. The hole on his chest, struck by a pole, was healing fast while Myla pulled the metal from his flesh.
"T-thanks . . . ," he choked from his own blood.
That's right! She still had plenty of healing potions.
Still shaking, Rosa drank a potion and all her wounds healed at a rapid rate. She closed her eyes and released a big breath.
For a moment there, she thought she'd really die. In that fraction of seconds, she regretted that she had entered this dungeon in the first place.
How pathetic.
She smiled bitterly at herself.
"Is everyone okay?" Fjord asked and looked back. It didn't take a second, and horror coated his face.
Rosa swept the inside of the vehicle and restrained a gasp.
Aron and Brent were dead just like that. Their bodies were skewed in awkward angles, and their head and limbs were nowhere to be found amidst the gore and blood.
And from out of them, the only one whose injury wasn't severe was Kelly. She transformed into a ball of fur, and nobody knew how she did it, but not a single scrape was present on her skin.
Her hide must be made of steel. Rosa thought, taking note that she would use her as a shield later on.
"We have to get out of here," said Saxa, eyeing the mutated undead who were approaching their way.
"Let's regroup first at a safe distance." Fjord and Myla pulled their seatbelt and fell off their chair. The vehicle was toppled upside down. Half of its body was wrecked, and it was impossible to escape using it now.
Daman it! They were not going to make it! Rosa thought about the list of items she had and what she could use to deflect the undead's attention to give them enough time to get out of the vehicle.
She was having problems communicating with her brain as of late. Not to mention that she had a lot of items but didn't know which one to use.
Rosa pulled whatever item she had and threw it towards the approaching zombies.
A sizzling sound rippled in the air, and a cold smog enveloped the place. When the mutated undeads' limbs touched the smog, they instantly froze to ice.
Fuck!
That was a rare item! Rosa cursed many times in her head, but she did get out of the vehicle with the other thanks to it.
Damn it!
Her heart was bleeding. She didn't care if the horde of zombies who circled their vehicle all turned to popsicles. She'd rather have that item back if she could. She only had two of those –– only one now, thanks to her stupidity.
"Hurry this way!" Fjord guided them into a narrow alleyway, up a flight of stairs, and inside a building.
They caught their breath when they finally landed in a safe room upstairs. It must have been a condo once, but now it turned like a horror room with overturned furniture and clattered things with no light and little air from the tightly barricaded window.
Saxa went ahead and checked the room inside for any potential threat while the rest worked together to secure the place. Using the furniture and everything they could grab, they sealed the only entrance and exit of the place.
Kelly looked over at Rosa with an innocent face. "Thanks. Without your item, we might have gotten killed."
Rosa drilled her fist against her head for reminding her again. "Shut up! I didn't do it for you!"
"Shh!" Fjord placed a finger over his lips. "Don't be so loud. You'll attract the undead with your voice."
Rosa batted her eyelids. "And whose fault is it that we landed in this kind of situation?"
Fjord turned dejected. "I'm sorry, you guys. Now we're in more trouble because of me."
"It's not your fault," Myla immediately defended. "Nobody wanted that to happen."
"But . . ." Fjord eyes shook, and his head lowered. "Without the car, we couldn't get to city X. And the radio was broken."
"We'll walk." Saxa append before us after she cleared every room. "We'll walk to city X, and you two will come with us. I've already contacted HQ about our location and condition, and we will meet up with another team in City X."
Everyone breathed easy.
Right, Saxa still had her own radio for communication. Limited as they were, those gadgets were handed to every group leader.
The advantage of being in the sanctuary was the higher chance of survival than being alone in the apocalyptic world.
"Why can't they send a vehicle now?" Kelly's ears dropped to each side of her head.
"All vehicles have been dispatched already." Saxa sat on the floor near the window and checked the perimeters. "We'll observe the surroundings first before we head out."
No one argued, and Rosa scooted over the window to look out the situation outside.
Due to the ruckus they made, there was a lot of undead congregating from their vehicle. The freezing smog disappeared as well, while those undead who were hit before remained popsicles forever.
Still, there were probably hundreds of undead coming into their location, attracted by the loud noise. What's worse, Rosa spotted mutated beasts going to and fro. There were also mutate animals who were sniffing around.