*Multiple POVs*
***
(MC POV)
After handing me back my sash I tied it back around my waist, but it felt different and for some reason I couldn't quite tighten it enough to restore it back to how it was before.
When I looked up I saw her tying the sleeping man up. His hands were bound together by the wrists using his own sash. Somehow it also extended out back and tied his feet together by the ankles leaving it suspended in the air as the tension from the sash made sure it didn't touch the ground. There was also a ball of cloth stuffed inside his mouth gagging him.
Wait a minute I know this, it's a hog tie. I remember this from a western game I played. You could kidnap almost any NPC basically and tie them like this, then toss them on a train track or in front of a train.
She stood up after adding a few finishing touches and put her hands on her waist. A proud expression was seen as she looked down at here work. She smiled down upon him, like he was prey.
"๐๐ข๐ฏ, ๐ช๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐จ๐ช๐ณ๐ญ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ? ๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ง๐ง?"The distinct voice of Chen Huang appeared near my right ear.
"๐๐ฉ๐ฆ'๐ด... ๐ถ๐ฎ... ๐ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ช๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ. ๐๐ฏ ๐ง๐ข๐ค๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐'๐ท๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด."
"๐๐ฉ, ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐บ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ? ๐๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ, ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด. ๐๐ฏ ๐ง๐ข๐ค๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ด ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ง๐ข๐ค๐ต ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ! ๐ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ด ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ."
When I slightly turned my head towards him I saw as he smiled at me.
"๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ? ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฆ!"
"๐๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ, ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ ๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ง ๐ ๐ ๐ต๐ณ๐บ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ญ๐ถ๐ค๐ฌ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต? ๐'๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐'๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต! ๐๐ฉ๐บ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ?
๐๐ถ๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ'๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ถ๐ค๐ฌ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ. ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ค๐ต ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด!"
When I thought of someone else taking her away from me, I felt a terrible feeling well up inside me. My right arm felt so lonely, I subconsciously glanced at my arm.
It had only been minutes since she last held it, but thinking of her never hugging my arm again instead doing it to another man made me feel a feeling I've never felt before, jealousy.
'He's right, but I can't let something like that can't happen! She isn't really my girlfriend though, YET. I have ask her out, before it's too late. Maybe after we escape this place or something, I've put this off for too long. If I don't act soon she might leave me!'
***
(Yao Ya POV)
'I finally have to use those skills I learned from mother, I'm glad she taught me! I still remember a few interrogation skills I think. Hopefully it's be enough to extract some info from this person.'
"Wow, Sister Yao Ya where did you learn to do that?" I turned to see the couple of girls who had always been behind us step towards me. At the same time I saw as Chen Huang whispered to Ip Cheng.
'Ah? Is he finally doing it? I asked him after the Inner disciple gathering to help Ip Cheng be a little bolder and maybe make him profess his love. He said that Ip Cheng was lucky to have me and he would help, but since he never leave his house the entire time this should be the first time.
If I know him he'll surely think about what Chen Huang said, maybe if I feint a little disinterest then he'll be more active in chasing me. Give him some fear about it and he'll have to think about the regret of losing me. Which he doesn't know will never come.
It's a good thing I hid everything related to him in that apartment before he came, I wouldn't want him to know I've been stalking him, at least not yet. He's not ready for that yet.'
"-ister Yao Ya?"
"Hmm? Oh I'm sorry I was a little distracted for a moment, but it's been quite a while- those men from before could be upon us at any moment. We should quickly leave this area, but make sure we take that man too. We'll need information, any we could get."
"En! We understand Come on Sister Shun let's carry this man together."
"Hey you, go help these girls, are you even a man? Letting these two girls pick up this heavy man."
"Huh.. Are you talking to me?"
"Yes, you."
"What about the other two?"
"What about them?"
I saw his face as he was about say something about that, but in the end he replied "R-Right, here let me help you two girls out."
"No, it's okay. We aren't as weak as you think we are Senior Brother." She spoke as they both started to pick the man up. One got a hold of him by grabbing under the knees while the other held him using the space between his arms and torso as leverage.
"Yeah, don't worry about us."
The man turned turned back to the girl, he had a helpless expression.
***
(MC POV)
'Ok Alright, before we exit this realm I'll ask her out. It's been so long since I've done this, but they've all ended in failure in the past, for some reason. Hopefully this one won't end like that.
Huh, what's happening? Those two girls picked up the sleeping man. Are we leaving now? Hmm those two girls remind me of something.
Oh right, I remember watching an anime set in the zombie apocalypse that started out in a high school setting. I think in the first episode I saw two girls who were running through a walkway professing their friendship and how they would always be together. Then one of them got grabbed by a zombie and the other girl immediately did an entire 180 kicking her friend away to not get pulled down along with her.
That won't happen though right?'
"Let's go, before any of them show up. It's already been quite a while since we seen any of them." Yao Ya said suddenly taking charge over the group.
She took the lead and we trailed behind her as she moved away almost to a sprinting speed. We ran around with the light talisman guiding our way around.
*SSsss..* Was...
The area around us immediately became dark again. I looked down at my hands to see how dark it truly was. I saw nothing, but the darkness. I can't tell if it's because my eyes haven't adjusted to the darkness around or if it's truly this dark.
I heard a few sounds of hands touching cloth before a few seconds later an area nearby slowly became bright enough to see again once more. Once the light settled the one who I expected to be holding the light talisman wasn't doing so. She was in fact holding one, but it had yet to be lit instead another held one that was lit.
It was Yao Ya who held it instead and the light didn't reach me. I was maybe a meter and a half away from where the light ended. Everyone else had already been inside the circle, so when I stepped into the light even though they probably knew it was me they were still a little scared and spooked by my arrival.
We kept running around, by now the internal map of the area I had in memory was already messed up. I still remember the entrance first main room with the three tunnels connecting it, the human fire room going straight ahead and the mall like shopping area at the end of the right tunnel. Anywhere past that or even my current location was a mystery.
Eventually we arrived in front of a set of double doors like the ones we that were present during the entering of the first tunnel.
Apparently deciding that this room was safe we quickly entered before shutting the door behind us light enough that no slamming sound was produced.
We followed the right wall until we though it was far enough that we stopped. Along the way we spotted bamboo scrolls and paper manuals sprawled across the floor. On one side was a stone wall that separated us from the rest of the stronghold and on the other shelfs were seen they were fairly messy.
While we were walking we had seen that entire sections from these shelfs were gone. Those people from before had probably been here already. We all sat down on the ground in a circle as we rested.
After some time Yao Ya stood up, "We don't know if this place is safe yet, so we have to secure the area. I have some spare light talismans so we should all split up and scour the room for threats. Just shout and we'll hear you to come help.
I shall go with Ip Cheng and you guy's can discuss your teams yourselves, here's four extra talismans to spread amongst yourselves. Come on let's go!" She spoke quickly and dragged me along before the others even realized they had been given talismans.