Chereads / Crimson Apocalypse / Chapter 97 - Chapter 97: New journey and three weeks

Chapter 97 - Chapter 97: New journey and three weeks

After several hours of discussing and planning their next journey, the group realized that they spent all their day. Those 6 hours of sunlight ended quite rapidly. They couldn't even track the time properly.

Rick was always aware of how much time passed, and in how many minutes or hours the sun would disappear. However, that day he was too absorbed in finding another refuge to go. He needed to start moving as fast as possible. After two days of slacking, he wouldn't allow himself to wait for any further to make a decision and scheme the next journey.

Rick felt exhausted once he decided to split from the group and walk away.

He approached the lakes and sighed hard while looking at the water.

Rick didn't like to look at lakes when it was night. The water didn't have that beautiful blue like when the sunlight reflected on its surface. He couldn't see the soft waves and tiny bubbles caused by the few fishes inside the lake.

'It doesn't remember of her, at all...' His tired eyes turned into sad ones.

'My deadline is even shorter than before. I am getting old and tired each day that passes. I can't fight or think the same way as in my youth times. Also, I am falling into Ascendant's Trap... Soon, I won't be the same anymore.'

His gaze passed through the surface of those three interconnected lakes, but stopped once he saw something reflected on the water.

'The Moon?' He looked up, to the center of the sky. There, he could see the ghostly figure of the Moon greeting him.

Someone didn't have the opportunity to see the Moon often because of its orbit. Sometimes, it couldn't even be seen for days. Those dense dark red clouds making some sort of ring in the skies made its visualization very rare.

'I wonder if we will be ok in this next journey...' Rick crouched on the ground while taking a map that was attached to his waist.

He unfolded it, looking at the almost perfect drawing of Saphyr and its various locations. Of course, that map was updated to Saphyr post-Crimson Apocalypse. It had all the big refuges in there, and some average ones.

Rick made sure to buy one that had even the minor refuges because they were also useful when someone was traveling.

Saphyr didn't have borders with any other country. It was part of a mostly oceanic continent, so the majority of countries were separated from each other from thousands of kilometers of water. Saphyr had the biggest territory of all others in the continent and was considered one of the world's biggest powers before the apocalypse.

Rick looked where they were now, at the midwest region.

Refuge Crystal was quite distant from the Capital. Their location wasn't favorable to get to any regions. When doing so, they would need to take harsh paths and spent months walking. That's why Rick lasted so much time with his comrades when deciding where they would need to go.

He kept looking at a specific route drawn in red from point A (Refuge Crystal), to point B (Their destination).

'It will be a looong journey. There aren't many refuges near the Capital, because it is too dangerous, so we will need to go even further into the midwest region in order to find somewhere good to settle and begin to sell "Willpower" again. This route has many refuges to settle down if needed. It avoids most of the forests and doesn't oblige us to cross the Serpent River.'

Rick was proud of their work. They did such a complex scheme in just some hours. They never decided their routine so efficiently like that.

"I think that it is time to go. Two hours before the sun appears again will be the right time to do so. I am excited to start it as soon as possible. Maybe this way I will be able to survive from the two individuals trying to take my life." He muttered, taking a rock and throwing it at the river, watching it bounce several times before stopping and sink.

...

Three weeks went by in the blink of an eye.

The group had started their journey excited with the outcome. All the struggles they needed to pass in Refuge Crystal were still within their hearts. They definitely held a grudge at anything related to that place.

The easiest way to travel through Saphyr's midwest region was in the Black fields or the remnants of the highways of old Saphyr. Nonetheless, those highways have nearly vanished. Most of them got invaded by vegetation and crumbled down through time, so they weren't that useful anymore.

In the end, most of the traveling groups choose to go through the Black fields. The food and other supplies were sparse, but that wasn't something bad for the majority since they tended to take supplies with them on the journey.

Rick's group was the same, of course. Their route mostly passed through the Black fields.

Although the new journey's beginning got them excited, that feeling vanished after the two first days of traveling. When three weeks passed, they wanted two consecutive days of slacking once again.

That was precisely what Hector was thinking when in the middle of the fight that the group was having.

'Three weeks of just suffering again. How many days this whole journey will take!? My right foot hurts, I feel exhausted every single second of the day, and my headache doesn't vanish no matter what I do!'

He was nearly giving up and lying on the ground, but he knew that, if he did it, he would turn into Dread's food.

Because of his body and mind exhaustion, he wasn't fully paying attention to the battle.

He got so stressed because the group decided to walk for a couple of hours more that night. They were two hours late to go to bed. Clay claimed that the territory they were going through was home to some annoying types of Dreads, so it was better to keep walking until they crossed its borders.

Hector didn't realize when one of the Dreads that engaged in battle with them could sneak from Kevin's view, who was defending in the frontline.

Clay was busy helping Rick and didn't spot him as well.

That Dread could make his way, flanking Hector, then attacking him.

Hector just realized that he was under threat when it was already too late.