Yakov looked at Gloria with bewildered expression. "Electrical Engineering?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure you're not wrong?"
Gloria rolled her eyes. She shrugged because this was not the first time someone was stunned by her choice of course. After all, the number of women who picked this course in the university was low. Even in her class, only 10% was female.
William smiled wryly. "Are all Electrical Engineering students as eccentric as you?"
"I don't think so?"
"Do you know how to use gun?"
Gloria shook her head. In her entire life, she had never even touched gun except toy gun. However, it didn't mean that she didn't know how to protect herself completely. She still knew the basic method if she wished to survive.
William took out a small handgun and handed it to Gloria. "We'll start your training now, then."
"Now?"
"Let's return back to the room."
The three of them returned back to their previous room. William cast a glance at the north, where the balcony was not far from the mall. He sent a message with his gaze to Yakov, who had readied his gun and pointed it to the mall.
They would need to find a different location to stay later, but for now, they had to make do with this room. It would be evening soon and the Xermo roaming around had already increased. They have to reduce the number if they wished to get out of this building safely.
"Come here, Gloria."
"Yes."
Gloria put her bag on the floor before she walked to William. The two of them were standing in the balcony as William pointed to the Xermo below them. There were several of them roaming around on the street as lone walker. There didn't seem to be anyone who were still alive.
"They all have turned into Xermo?"
"Some died instead of turning," William responded. He furrowed his brows. "How did you know their name?"
"The government's announcement."
"Oh." William didn't pay close attention to the announcement, so he missed the information when they told the people that these mutated were called Xermo and could no longer considered as human being. He sighed lightly. "Pay attention now. I'm going to teach you how to use guns."
"Yes."
"Aim at the Xermo, make sure that your hands are firm and hold the gun tightly…."
It took some time for William to make sure that Gloria was already at the correct position. He glanced at Yakov, who was still ready in his position.
"Shoot."
Bang!
Gloria's body was pushed to the back slightly as the effect of the gun's shoot. Her small body was not entirely prepared for the setback.
"Try to hold your ground. It might not be easy for the first time, but you need to get used to it."
"Y..yes."
The lessons continued while Yakov was busy cleaning up the Xermo that was roaming in the mall beside them. He frowned when he realized that there were so many Xermo that was attracted by the loud voice of the gunshot.
"We'll stop here," William said when the sun was setting. He took out a can of food. "Eat first. Tomorrow morning, we'll head to a different hotel."
"Yes?" Gloria was stunned.
"The gun will attract the Xermo to come here," Yakov explained. He had already killed more than 100 Xermo in the past hour and felt that there were still more. "Do you remember the total of population of the cities around the capital city?"
William frowned. "A few millions?"
Gloria tilted her head. "Around 2 to 3 million."
"Imagine half of them turn into Xermo," Yakov said and pointed outside. "We'll be dead meat if they chose to roam around in this place."
There were several other speakers in other location, but it was quite far. The Xermo that was roaming around this area was attracted by the sound of gunshot that Gloria and Yakov fired all this time.
"I'll guard the night," William said and pointed to the bedroom. "You two can rest tonight."
"You…"
"We'll switch when it's nearly dawn."
"Fine," Yakov agreed. As for letting Gloria to be the guard… that would be out of the question. They couldn't possibly let her be the guard if they didn't want to end up dying the next day.
William picked his gun and sat in the living room. He could hear the sound of water splashing from the two's room as they cleaned up. While there was no electricity, there was still some water left in the bathtub that they could use.
Talking about water, they would need to find a way to stock their water supplies soon. After all, he didn't bring a gallon of water with him when he came here and only a few bottles.
'Surviving in this situation would not be easy.'
William calmly waited in the quiet night. The sound of Xermo roaming around outside occasionally could be heard. From the bottom of his heart, William was glad that this was not the capital city because the population in the capital city was nearly 10 times of this city.
If there were a lot of Xermo roaming, their chance of surviving would be extremely low.
'That mutated Xermo apparently also scare away other ordinary Xermo. It means that Xermo still have basic instinct for survival.'
Scare away others….
William clenched his fist. He had to find out a method so that he could grow stronger. Just relying on the guns and knives might not be enough if his enemies turned out to be the mutated Xermo like before.
'I have to find a method to grow stronger as fast as possible.'
In the dim night, William was silently brewing his future plan.