"Kill them!" the voice of a man commanded the remaining monsters, Blessy was attempting to get closer yet her sister was able to predict her movement, tripping Blessy and preventing her from leaving the tree.
"What are you planning on doing? Don't tell me that you will risk your life again."
Blessy tried to pull away from her sister's grasp but to no avail, the older female overpowered her strength and forced her to leave with her.
"This is not where we're supposed to be!" Blessy resumed the other way, creating another conflict between them. "Do you even hear yourself right now??"
Rissa faced her sister as they moved far from the tree and the place where a flock of infected creatures are huddled in a circle.
Blessy was just as confused as her sister although, they were confused about different things since Blessy knows more than Rissa in terms of the outbreak that happened.
"Cut it out, will you? I have to see his face!" the girl backfired, abandoning Rissa under the rain to satisfy her own curiosity.
The rain grew heavier as their vision turned darker to the point that they could not see what is in front of them yet not one of them halted.
"Don't go!" Rissa called while she unconsciously walked back and forth in the dark, the group, on the other hand, approached the area with ease since they were confidently sure that there was nothing blocking the path because they knew their enemies' weaknesses and that things would become easy.
'What is this?' Bonnet came across nothing in the dark, she used her hands and touched everything as the group continued moving onward.
"Excuse me?" the little girl tried to feel the figure in front of her but as soon as it felt her, it responded very violently and devoured her.
"Help me!" she screamed in pain as the monstrous creature engulfed her in the neck, she bled heavily as the group of boys heard the sound despite the cold rain gushing on the floor with the wind blowing hard.
"Where is Bonnet?" Red accidentally bumped into June and they all fell to the ground.
"Bonnet? Can you hear me?" they called her name without a clue, she was already lifeless by the time they realized that she was nowhere near them.
"Blessy! Sis, come back!" Rissa carefully crawled around until she met the group, they were all on the floor, worried about the ones that were not with them.
Fortunately, they were not as far from each other in spite of the days that have passed by, after splitting up into two.
'Just who are you?' Blessy held onto her headphones beneath the raincoat hood, slowly walking once thunderstruck to give her a bit of light.
"It'll stop raining sooner, have them all head to the town hall." the voice spoke while a violet beam of light lured the remaining creatures west as the storm weakened.
"Blessy! There you are." Rissa rushed to her side when she regained her senses, making sure that it wasn't too late to save her from any more danger. 'Is this...'
Ace fell behind and immediately recognized the vanity item he had seen that belonged to the little girl, he figured that she was in trouble and then, searched for her using his other senses as it was dark.
He was still quite unable to use his eyes. 'This all too fast...' the male could not believe it.
He followed the feeling of what seemed to be a trail of blood and the girl's body was right in front of his eyes.
It was going to be a problem if the others find out, he contemplated for a bit, at the same time, his friend, June had already found out just when he made up his mind. "Is that..." he did not hesitate to think like Ace, they both similarly took action while it was still early.
"On the count of three, we lift her." June ordered.
"One, two, and three." he whispered to his older friend and lifted up Bonnet's gory corpse, gently walking away from the others while they were still unaware of their surroundings.
"Let's head further so that they wouldn't notice us bury the kid. Head for that tree!" Ace blatantly added as he urged the other individual to keep it between themselves.
"He's gone. They're gone!" Blessy was flabbergasted by the sudden appearance and departure of the mysterious man, she definitely lost it again, her sanity though came back as the sound of groaning echoed.
"They're re-transforming..." she murmured under her breath before pulling Rissa by the hair and leading her to the group.
"Okay, headcount! Shawn, Mike, Red, and Rissa..." she glanced everywhere to seek the other three but they did not have much time left the infected beings returned to their gruesome forms.
"Go, go!" Red carried his friend, Shawn, while Mike was harshly dragged as well.
"No, hold on!"
Mike could not help but feel sorry for losing Bonnet, they still had no idea what happened when the rain poured down and lost sight of their friends.
"We have to go now. Dump it already!" Ace tagged along with June once they buried the little girl's corpse and fled from the area, seeing their friends as their distance grew bigger.
Each of them was busy with their own thoughts and feelings, barely managing to overcome another moment of being chased by their enemies for they were in distress.
June and Ace ran for their lives once the undead creatures caught them when they were fleeing away from the tree.
Both of them are drenched in blood because of Bonnet's unfortunate end.
"Follow me! Go for that truck." Ace went ahead of his younger friend, sprinting even more to escape the issue they got into for hiding the death of their fellow. They were walking over and under the objects in their way to slip out of their enemies' vision without trouble, fortunately, this worked and they succeeded in meeting with the others.
Surprisingly, the rest of them were waiting behind that truck instead of entering it because the last thing they would want to happen is to end up with another crisis if ever they choose to get inside, having no idea what might be in there.
"Did you guys happen to see her?" Mike rushed to their side, having only one thing in mind. "She's fine, right?"
He looked out in the open, seeing nothing else other than the hoard of infected beings walking around in all directions.
"Let's talk about that later, we have to find a shelter and discuss something important." Blessy opened up the back of the truck and let them enter ahead of her.
'I feel uneasy...' she checked if it was safe before closing it.
============
"What time of the day do you think it is?" Ace peeked through the small glass hole in the vehicle's wall, walking back and forth while the others were contemplating what they should be doing or where they should go next.
"Source." Rissa recalled the glimpse she caught weeks ago, she happened to steal their glances and have her explain what she said.
She did not want to expose her sister, hence, she brushed it off.
"I just think that we should do something about this. Like investigate what exactly caused all of this to happen." she brazenly stood up.
Not forgetting about the fact that they should keep their voices down low, her sister immediately agreed to this, however, the boys were against it.
"Don't you know a thing about zombies? If you compare them to the ones in the movies, we-" Shawn tried to come up with a reason to make them back down.
Blessy was quick to cut him off though, debating that they should not compare real life with the elements of a movie, why?
"As you've all seen so far, the monsters that are around us aren't anything like the zombies in the films. They are evolved and you're right about us not having that high of a chance to survive." she was riled up with the topic, dropping herself down on the floor, specifically, on the pile of blank recycled papers.
"Calm down, letting our emotions rule over us in this situation will only get in the way of staying alive." June joined in.
Signaling them all to rest as much as they could in the meantime.
"Before we discuss all of this, how about we mention the fact that Bonnet is out there alone in the wilderness filled with evolved-looking creatures as we speak?"
There was silence in the air with all of them minding their own business now, Blessy, however, roamed around the truck and investigated each and every single thing in the vehicle, even though they were making a series of noises.
No monster from the area had approached them. 'An after-effect of the rain and thunder... They are still harmless!'
"Why don't we go back and search for Bonnet? Dead or alive, we must look for her." the girl suggested with a smile on her face, still oblivious to the little girl's state condition.
"I don't think that's a-" June tried to oppose her idea but Mike immediately went to the girl's side and nodded aggressively. "Are you kidding me?! We could die out there!"
Ace refuted the situation occurring right in front of his eyes, most of them were in disagreement with the idea, all except for Mike.
Blessy dragged the short guy in front of her, showing him the fact that their enemies were still not themselves at the moment, and they had to seize the opportunity before it slips out of their grasp.
"Can't you see? For once, use your eyes and not your mouth." June witnessed the living corpses that were just walking around with not a single intention to kill.
"I see. They aren't a threat right now!" he beamed, relieved by the news.
Just then, the noise coming from metal hitting the bottom of the vehicle made the group feel startled. "What was that?"
Rissa's voice increased because she was panicking, all of them investigated the source of the noise which fortunately went unnoticed by the undead creatures outside. "Don't mind that, we should just get ready to move out!"
"Let's not ignore that noise and investigate, it could to something much more serious if we leave it." Ace finally gave up on his opposition, doing what he does best which is looking after his friends.
'I still don't trust these girls, however, since they are the ticket to our survival... It is best not to get in their way in such case scenarios.'
Every single one of them took immediate action once the eldest male had ordered them to do things, they were given each their own tasks to do for the group in order to survive as a team. "We are... The... Dream Team! We are the Dream Team! We are... The... Dream Team!" Shawn was chanting by himself while tying together all of the cloth he found from within the boxes in the truck's back storage.
"Can you stop with that?" Rissa was feeling exhausted as it was also hot.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm gonna have to burst your bubble. No one wants this." Blessy felt the same way as her older sister, she knew that even if they worked together and things were practically going great, they were still not fond of each other's presence since they are strangers, to begin with.
"Can you at least be gentle with your words, girls? Just don't say anything at all if you're going to ruin someone's day."
Mike called out the two females, finding it unreasonable for them to get insulted because they were only trying to think positively unlike some people... "Fine, we apologize for expressing ourselves!" the younger female admitted her fault.
"We better get along with them, sis. They clearly have the quantity we need." the girl added as she looked over at her sister who is improvising the supplies they have gathered from the boxes.
"Don't get me involved with your choices, you made them stick with us, in the first place. I want nothing to do with them!" she complained, her memory slipping away.
"Were you not the one who said that we should take them with us? You did meet them before I did..." the younger sister muttered under her breath as they quickly moved on from the topic. "But we really do need to stick together in order to survive in this calamity..." she added, talking to herself as if it was a normal thing.
'I guess she does it too.'
Shawn was observing her with genuine care, he didn't let anyone get in his head such as Rissa, for example. "Bonnet..."
Mike couldn't help but wonder where his little friend had gone, he grew overly attached to the little girl and ended up getting traumatized once more after they lost sight of her. "How do we tell them?" June felt guilty for hiding it.
After half an hour, they soon gathered again in the middle of the truck storage.
Talking about their actual plan to get themselves into a secured and resourceful ground to camp in. "Another day is about to end, so we shouldn't waste any more of the opportunities that we are given, understood?"
Ace informed them about the fact that it is only the first week since the outbreak and that they cannot possibly use this time in being emotionally vulnerable because it affects their chances of survival.
"Should we not handle that one noise in particular? I mean, those monsters could regain their senses back in a moment, and it could make us retreat here..." the youngest of them, Red, had reminded the group concerning the noise that can also lure their enemies to their current refuge. "Your friend is right. Now, which one of us is going to face it?"
And before they knew it, Rissa had led the group into avoiding whatever they were going to oversight ahead of them.
"Not it!" she started the domino effect, holding her hand up high to escape the responsibility of checking out what the noise was produced by. "Not it..!"
Shawn was the second to the last who spoke up, leaving Blessy to solve their problem.
The rest of them gave glances at one another before landing their sight on the person who lost the unexpected game. "Why? What happened?" the girl stood and got up on her feet after struggling to fix her shoelaces.
"Were you not listening?" Mike did not seem to follow, he surely expected that the girl would be attentively listening to them all this time despite having to bend down on one knee in order to tie her shoelaces while they were talking.
'Do I really have to do this?' Blessy was dumbfounded by the task she was forcibly given although, it was not such a big deal for her to handle, she only felt like the trust they were beginning to earn toward each other is already broken.
She held her daggers up close, staring at the group with an obvious expression of annoyance on her face, choosing to get over the problem as quickly as she could.
'Must it really be me?' she can tell that they will keep on relying on her once the job is done, it has already started and there seems to be no way that she can end it.
"Come out, whatever or whoever you are..." she spoke with little interest in the noise, it began changing to a different pattern though, she lifted the right side of her headphones, seriously listening to the sudden change of the sound.
The others noticed this as well, there was someone under the truck, possibly a person who is obviously aware of what to do when they get buried or stuck underneath something.
"Someone is asking for help below. Help me lift this thing up!" she hid her weapons and motioned the rest of the group to assist her.
Ace forcibly took the flashlight from Rissa while she was preoccupied with hiding behind her younger sister. "Hey, you!" the older female didn't have the energy to even go against him at that moment, she let them handle things as they went along with it.
"We must lift it up together, now!" June instructed the other five.
"There's someone under!" Rissa took a peek at the person that Ace was shining the flashlight on. "Quickly, put it down."
Shawn reached for the wagon filled with hard and dried cement, placing it near the middle to make sure that the truck was fairly supported by the wagon.
"Don't let go, it isn't balanced well enough." Mike guided them.
"Hurry up! We can't hold onto it for long." June kept on giving all his strength to save a life, he and the four other ones were trying their best to keep the vehicle from crushing the person beneath even more.
"Riss, can you shine this thing in there while I go inside to pull them out?" Ace didn't have time to look back and threw the flashlight toward Rissa.
Luckily, the female caught it and immediately pointed the light at him.
Following his movement as he walked in deeper.
The truck was not really that huge in size, nor was it that wide, however, Ace ended up going inside a place where the metal clanging noise originated from.
It turned out to be bigger than the outside when one enters the premises.
The lighting was somewhat relaxing beneath the surface, the ground seems to have diverged and turned into two, creating an underground hideout.
June yelled his older friend's name and the group soon came to a realization that the eldest male was no longer visibly anywhere below the vehicle after receiving no answer.
"Look! There is an entrance down here!" Rissa searched for Ace, following the male's path which led the group to abandon their current plan and moved the truck away from the hole, letting it become their cover in case of emergency.
They headed inside to look for anything if ever there was something to be suspicious of under the ground. "Ace!"
Mike called for his friend, seemingly scolding him for going astray.
"What are you doing there?" he was dumbfounded by the appearance of the underground hideout, slightly upset with his friend's behavior.
"You shouldn't leave on your own. It could be dangerous around here..."
Shawn was also disappointed in him, making his teammates worry much for his sake, there was some kind of a substance glowing and moving on the wall and ceiling but they paid no attention to this yet...
"Blessy, do not! Please, do not touch anything!" her older sister demanded.
"It feels horrifying to be in here." Mike whispered to himself, urging the others to come back outside and resume what they were planning on doing, in the first place, which is to escape as soon as possible from that place.
Blessy, however, still had the courage to investigate the area furthermore, trying to find anything useful to lead her to the origin.
'These things are deceased humans that weren't able to turn into them.' she listed another hypothetical scenario in her thoughts while walking even deeper inside the underground hole, the sight was as if they were watching an educational program on television where they showcase insects that failed the completion of metamorphosis.
"And possibly, a southern living undead creature with the traits of a butterfly had infected these and stored them in a chrysalis that its own kind had produced, preserving its freshness to feed on when it wants." the girl concluded in her mind as soon as a figure appeared in front of her eyes, fluttering its deformed wings and attempting to fly.
"I don't think that this place is close to being safe."
Rissa stared at the rest of them when they discerned that even the floor looked like it was consuming them, the 21-year-old female instantly left their side to fetch her sister, resulting in awakening the source of life that kept those grotesque-looking undead creatures.
"Run."