'Hmm, from what I am planning I can only provide minimum comfort during the journey but life is more precious, for increasing the speed and security I will have to provide only the bare necessity, though I can do something for the shock absorbers, hmm, it could work though I will have to recheck the calculations and see how many I can shove inside a wagon without much problem.'
As Ryan was busy with his calculations and finalizing his current plans a figure approached him and as the figure was sufficiently near him Ryan acknowledged the figure with a smile as he spoke, "Hey Angela did you finish your scouting."
Angela gave a small nod as she replied to him, "Yes I have just finished my scouting so will you want to hear my report now."
"Yes please, Angela."
"Ryan, we have finished cataloguing the contents of the wagons, some of them contain food, some clothes, and then there are useless items like toys and various other electronic devices."
Ryan frowned at Angela's words as he replied to her, "There is nothing useless as long as I can recycle it, everything of the fallen civilization is useful."
Angela with a small nod continued her report, "Now on the east side there is goods train carrying oil tanker and it seems they are full, and then…", Angela trailed off seeing the frightened look on Ryan's face, who was looking at the particular with fear in his eyes.
Angela grabbed his hand drawing his attention towards her as she spoke with a worried look on her face, "Ryan are you alright?"
Ryan took a deep breath before he spoke with a look of fear on his face, "No I am not, I was just reminded of the incident with the Oil depot in Navalach city, and that is something that I do not wish to remember it."
Angela simply squished his shoulder as she spoke with a caring tone, "I do not wish to pretend that I can understand what you went through there, but I am here, we all are here, you can always trust us and lean us whenever you need to if you wish to confide about something I am all ears."
Ryan was silent for a moment before he spoke with a bright smile, "It is nothing but hearing about Oil tankers suddenly brought back some bad memories, being roasted alive is not fun, I am fine for now you do not need to worry."
Angela simply gave him a small smile while inwardly she was greatly worried, 'I have to inform Michalina, about Ryan's problem.'
"Well thank you for your hard work though I might call you now and then to guide me to specific stuff, for now, please report back to big sister."
Angela simply nodded as she left, while Ryan went back to his work on the finalizing the design for the vehicle.
Ylerias looked down from the top of the base she could see all the people beneath her scurrying around gathering resources from food, to wood, amongst various other things, she could see that Ryan had finally made his move as he was tearing down one wagon after another with great gusto.
'Dismantle and store, dismantle and store, this is what I will be working for some time, but it was a good thing that there was a goods train with cars in it, the tires would be greatly appreciated, otherwise I would have to deal with a whole lot of trouble.'
********
While Ryan was happily working on his project on another part of the country Ileana laid on the ground with tears streaming down her face, one of her eyes was blackened shut, her nose broken, she was having a hard time to breath as her chest hurt, blood dripped from her broken nose, even her hands had been broken, she laid on the ground with her blood dripping from her nose while staring at the smirking person with terror.
The person looked down at her, he had already torn most of her clothes beaten her into submission as he undid his pants he could hear the whimper of the girl in front of him which greatly aroused him.
"Basile, I never understood how you never had done the deed with her, she is quite the looker."
The person named Basile replied with a dejected sigh, "Hey do not blame me, despite everything that girl is not only high maintenance but a prude saving herself up for her wedding day, ugh such a bore."
"Then why did you even waste time after her."
Basile looked towards one of the people as he spoke with a shrug, "Huh, I never wasted any time my true girlfriend and I used to poke fun behind her back, after all, I went after her was so that I could hurt her holier than thou brother, he saw through me and my intention but the foolish girl jumped into my arms because his brother tried to protect her, even then all I got out of the deal was a few kisses, such a boring woman."
"You bastard.", a person shouted out from under Basile, only for him to stomp the person hard making the person let out a cry of pain.
The other would-be rapist had already removed his pants as he looked back towards Basile who was standing on top of Marcel as he spoke with a knowing look on his face, "Brother Basil why are you being so harsh on him, maybe he is jealous of us, do not worry you will allow you to have some fun after we finish with your daughters and wife."
Hearing his words his companions all laughed out loud, jeering and taunting Marcel who closed his eyes with intense grief, 'If only I were powerful then my family would not have to have suffered, why did God gave filth like them power whereas we are deprived of any, why?'
As he drowned in grief his mind went back to the events a few minutes ago, it was mid-morning they were about to have their morning breakfast of some rabbit-like creature that they had managed to hunt, the hundred-strong group had no idea where they would go, wherever they would look only danger lie, but all they knew was to move forward.
Marcel looked at his fellow escapees as he let out a tired sigh, 'I would have ended up becoming the CEO of my company but now because of the apocalypse I could not even feed my children properly, how long has it been that they had eaten something proper, zombies and creatures roaming the land but the most dangerous creature is humans ourselves.'
"Marcel, you looked worried."
Hearing his wife Eleanora's voice brought joy to his heart making his aged face gain a small smile before seeing the aged look on her face, truly how the environment could change someone, before the apocalypse Marcel and Eleanora can easily pass for someone who was in their early thirties, with their good and smart looks they were subject of awe and envy of others, but now with their white hair and hollowed out cheek, they look nearing their seventies.
Marcel's shoulder dropped as he spoke with a tired sigh, "I was just thinking about our future, we cannot live like nomads on this dangerous lands, we do not even have a proper destination, with food and other resources being nonexistent I do not know what we should do."
Eleanora embraced her husband as she spoke in a soothing voice, "There is nothing to worry, we are all together in this, and did you not forget what is our end goal is."
Marcel nodded as he replied, "Find Ryan and fix everything, but what if he is already de… ouch"
Marcel let out a yelp of pain as her wife's nails dug his back as she spoke in a furious tone, "Please Marcle do not say something ominous, that is my only reason to move forward please do not take it for me."
Marcel caressed his wife gently as he spoke in a soft voice, "Forgive me for even uttering such words."
They stayed silent for a moment before Eleanora broke the silence, "Why did we do something to him? He was our child our only beloved son why did we do it?"
Marcel looked towards the sky as he gained a look of sorrow before he spoke, "When Ryan was born do you remember how and why it happened?"
Eleanora nodded as she replied, "It was an extremely bad time for our carrier, we had hit rock bottom in our career everything looked bleak the only thing that kept us going was our daughters, don't you remember when we even though of committing suicide."
Eleanora nodded as she spoke, "Yes, it was really the darkest time of our life and when I got pregnant with Ryan, it was like another mouth to feed, if mother had not put her foot down we would have even aborted him and when he was born the company we were working went completely bankrupt and we were jobless, while the Global recession hit full force."
Eleanora's eyes widen while reminiscing about such tumultuous time of their life, as she gasped in disbelief, "Do you tell me we began to blame Ryan and then resent him."
Marcel nodded at her words as before he spoke, "Yes, I believe so, do you remember how frustrated we were with him, more often than not we had taken out our anger on him, even to the point of hitting a small babe, our baby and that is the only thing that came to mind, even after our life took a turn for the better we subconsciously resented him, when the twins were born we had received the best offer of our life and career."
A look of horror settled on Eleanora's face as she spoke, "What have we done? We have harmed him for some stupid reason, what did we become?"
Marcel whispered lowly at her words so low that Eleanora could barely make out, "Monster, we have become monster, there was a time when…", whatever he was about to say came to a halt as shouts of the enemy attacking came to his ears, but before they could organize they were soundly defeated and taken into custody, leading to their current situation.
************
Isabella shook with her fear as the person touched her, she was shaking with fear as she prayed to every God she knew, hoping for a miracle.
The person had a lecherous smile on her face as he spoke, "Do not worry I will train you to be a willing slut".