The pair on the ground quickly sprung back up on their feet, dusting off all the dirt and grass from their shoulders and legs as they apologized to one another, not minding how humiliating it felt since the other survivors caught them.
"Sleepwalking again, sis?" Rissa loudly checked to confirm from the inside of the tent, still lying down on her back as she tried to go back to sleep for the rest of the dawn.
"It was nothing, you guys should head back to bed while there is plenty of time to get some..." he paused for a moment before resuming.
"I surely think that there won't be any other opportunities to do it next time." he did not want to let them go to bed with even more things to think about.
Thus, whispering the last few words under his breath while picking up the items that fell on the ground when Blessy attacked him in her sleep.
"Really sorry about that." Blessy took out a pink hairbrush with a mirror behind it, slowly fixing her medium-length and wavy red hair for a couple of seconds, soon after, she returned to the far left side of the tent, returning to her dreamland.
However, the thought of their next destination has yet to enter their minds, occupied with getting the rest they wanted after almost a week of only running and hiding, as well as fighting with their enemies.
Far away from the group's location stands an admiral blue-haired male by the name of Francis Kyzer, being left alone by his comrade has made nature guide him along the path where the most active and harmful living corpses.
"Curse you!" he was being chased by a human-looking creature, it possessed black ashy dreadlock hair but Kyzer defeated it.
'How long am I supposed to suffer?' he reminisced the times when he and his friends battled many wars as one though, in reality, a war meant the challenges in life that they were put through as adolescents entering the age of adulthood.
"Even if the world is ending, I won't die alone. That is the only reason I have left to keep on thriving to survive in life."
Kyzer took cover behind a steel door, going back to the safe area that he secured for himself once he chose to start an investigation as to what really occurred two decades ago on the southern island.
His fossil-shaded eyes observed all the moving things surrounding the building outside of his safe area, the glass windows exposed him as it exposed them too.
On the crooked ground, there was something flinching as if it was a fish that got out of the water and struggled to go back in it, another one jumped from the top of a building to another.
"We actually don't stand a chance but then again, I am no longer human, to say the least." he drank from his glass cup, sipping on the fresh blood that he obtained.
*Crow~ Crow~* the sound of crows lurking around the premises grew louder as the sunlight became more unhealthy to those being shone by it.
A body with its organs is hanging on the tree when a red-haired male lurked near the camping site of the group, he noticed that it looked quite familiar to Bonnet which hit him in less than a second to realize.
Red sprinted near toward the waterfalls.
Being one step behind his friends and the girls as they finished packing up all the tent equipment before leaving to find their missing teammate.
"Have these, all of you." Rissa and Blessy were feeling generous enough to give the boys their own weapons to protect themselves.
They pushed past through the tall trees with their large branches blocking the group from continuously walking on their way out of that area.
Blessy anticipated the repair of her sunflower kite, and her older sister made sure to patch it up whilst they journeyed somewhere unknown for hours, having all sorts of random topics. "Alright, this time, why don't we hear from Ms. Riss?"
Ace, the chestnut-haired eldest member of their team gracefully swung his arms onto Rissa's shoulders.
"Take those hands off before I steal a sacred and historical weapon from a foundation hall somewhere around the street." the third oldest member of their said 'Dream Team' gave a nonchalant reply, effortlessly reminding her new friend to keep his hands to himself unless they want another cause of disapproval in working together.
"Don't be like that, sis. This kind of moment does not last forever so cherish it." they all agreed to Blessy's statement, nudging her older sister very playfully as they walked around like there was never an outbreak, to begin with.
"Okay..." the 21-year-old female handed the sunflower kite back to the other girl, stretching her elbows as they went on talking.
Rissa looked at her sister before leading the conversation, slowly but surely, they shared a little information about their own lives prior to the unfortunate spread of an infection in the city. Her sister nodded upon receiving the idea that the older female suggested although, they never really said a thing yet.
"Since we're all basically stuck with each other, it wouldn't hurt to say little about ourselves..." she took a short amount of time to inhale the polluted oxygen and then, resumed with the topic.
"Riell Rossa is the name. I also considered dropping out of college mainly because of my student debts." Blessy was surprised to hear of this, she could not help but feel bad.
"Uhhh, does my little sister feel bad now?" Rissa spoke in an unexpected way, pitching her voice higher compared to her usual laid-back voice. "If so, don't be." she continued.
"I never really wanted our father's money, hence, here we are..." instead of making the atmosphere drop, Rissa laughed it off while the others did the same.
"There isn't anything wrong with that, however, do you know what you almost got me into by not telling me about this?" the boys in the group were speechless, on the other hand, Rissa was thrilled to hear her sister raise her voice at her.
"You ended up getting cornered by those loan sharks in the basement of the mall, did you not?" they all looked at the girl with faces that seemed to never get enough of the drama in life, the group was huddled in a circle with Blessy patting Rissa's back with a bit of weight after not getting a response.
"Well! At least, now you know."
It was the only important thing left because those loan sharks are no longer around, they are nothing more than a good-for-nothing memory to reminisce.
"Check that out." June placed his right hand in his satchel, holding onto a knife that could cut anything so easily, and it is also a gift from the two girls.
"It's a child! Why? Are you already threatened by it?" Rissa lightly pushed Shawn as he trembled in fear when they saw an infected being in the shape of an innocent infant, after all, no matter the size and gender, anything is to be feared.
"I'm not threatened, I just feel sorry." Shawn lifted up his hand to defend himself, receiving laughter from the others as they find it a good thing to know that progress is happening.
"Let's gooo!" June excitedly tapped their backs, leading them soon enough to a waterpark. "What are we doing here?" asked Mike, being all quiet and stiff.
"His tracker led us here though." said June, the 5'4 foot tall male checked his phone once more before walking ahead of the others, unwillingly explaining that his phone still works despite the signal towers being shut down.
A noise began to blast their eardrums when they stepped inside the waterpark, monsters were everywhere in the place while the swimming pools were filled with blood and gore, everywhere their eyes gazed upon, it was all blood.
Hours have gone by, and the group of survivors huddled together in a single line as they silently strode to the side of a room with stealth.
"Hey, isn't that..." Ace pointed at a blonde and curly-haired little girl in the midst of a crazy event going on in the waterpark, there were lots of distinct living infected creatures there lurking in broad daylight.
'It is kind of a miracle that we haven't been caught by them...'
Shawn jinxed their luck as Mike stood up from his spot when he made eye contact with the blonde and curly-haired little girl, calling her name as if there weren't any of their enemies surrounding the pool grounds.
"Bonnet!" he shouted her name at the top of his lungs. "Run! RUN!"
Blessy and Rissa dragged the boys away from where they were, switching places in order to escape yet one more danger in their lives, all because of Mike's guilt and sorrow.
"But she was there! Wasn't she?" he was crying on the run while repeating the little girl's name over and over again till they stopped in the middle of nowhere.
"We are going in circles, do you both really want to help us or not?" the silver-haired male questioned them in anger.
"Me?! I am trying to help you guys when you're clearly driving yourselves into danger!" Blessy threw her duffle bag on the cement floor once they hid from their enemies.
"Help? You call that help?!" Ace scoffed at the girl's response to his younger friend as he defended themselves, a distance growing bigger than the first time they met.
"Listen, do you really think that you would be able to escape from the mall if it weren't for my baby sister?" Rissa joined in their argument as the group debated over who was responsible for the risks they kept on ending up with.
"Do you not remember that time when she also provided us food to regain the energy we lost after going around without a path??"
"My sister is the reason you are still alive and have a purpose to fulfill! You are kidding, don't you put the blame on us." the younger female was simply silent, letting her sister defend their dignity against the group of guys, consuming their power without even lifting a finger so as to teach them a lesson.
"I am not feeding any of you for all those harsh words."
"That doesn't depend on you, Rissa." Blessy urged them not to waste any more of their strength and/or breath because they still have a ton of things to do before she can pursue her true motives.
"Since we are talking about all of this..." June gathered all of them as they were slowly scattering into two separate units once again.
"Let me drink some water first." he tried to resist doing that but he could not help his need as a human, they let him get a sip of his own bottled water before starting a peaceful discussion with the others.
"So, we have issues, am I correct?????" the short leader-like seemed to have an idea in regard to closing the gap between their hearts and mind.
"Now, as we begin... Uhhh." he stuttered, slightly pressured by all of their glances attentively placed on him alone.
"Please don't do this to me, glare at each other if you must!" the poor boy fell on his knees with his hands hindering his small and round-shaped face yet pointy jawline, his huge tilted ebony black eyes looked at the rest of them in disbelief.
Their conversation ended with nothing but more air in their minds but of course, the group of survivors did not stop in terms of solving their problems to strengthen the bond tying them as one that is loose.
Although for some time, their ears were filled with a deadly silent session ringing because not one of them continued.
"Get up, will you?" the stern command forced him into dragging himself up, awkwardly giving back a glance to one of his friends, Shawn.
"I did not willfully volunteer in washing, rinsing, and drying our clothes for them to be stained..." the black-haired male held up his index finger, barely managing to scold the other survivor as his head turned aside.
"And now, are you eating in the middle of a serious topic?" his attention shifted to the red-haired girl, munching on a potato-flavored cereal fresh from the box.
"It felt like the right time to eat, plus, I did share it with you earlier." she said, taking a handful of it, thus, slowly putting some into her mouth.
"Stop picking a fight with us." the 21-year-old female with carrot-like orange hair in a feather braid, also known as Riell Rossa or Rissa, held onto her abdominal part whilst holding a heated hot compress pack to soothe the pain that she was experiencing since the day before.
"Ahhh, period cramps. I thought you were just overreacting."
Ace uncovered himself, passing his brown suede jacket to the girl in pain, knowing that things could get worse within a single day from all the effects that she might go through.
"Should we get going now or..." Mike untied his shoelaces while having a poker face, he was still not over his little friend's disappearance, and upon observing this.
"Bonnet died when it was raining heavily..." June did not beat around the bush, cutting to the chase before his friend entirely loses his sanity.
"Say that again." his seemingly cloud-shaded eyes instantaneously enlarged the moment June did what he had done without even warning the rest of them, on the other hand, Ace could only avoid their gaze.
"Let me explain! Okay? Nick and I sought to find you guys in the dark that day, anyhow, I saw him in front of the girl's slaughtered figure while the rest of you were scattered in the open..." he realized the mistake he unintentionally did.
Hence, checking if anyone noticed what he had mentioned. "Who exactly is Nick?" asked Shawn. The leader-like male gritted his teeth at his other naive friend, ignoring its question while gathering up his courage.
"We never meant to hide it this long but things happened and so..." he looked down with his hands on top of each other, facing his older silver-haired comrade as he handled the situation. "I think Nick and Ace are the same person."
Blessy whispered to the frustrated Shawn, drawing the potato cereal box close to him, and obligingly sharing her brand-new favorite snack.
"Oh, how do you know that? I thought he was my friend... How come I wasn't informed of his real name?" the male whispered in return as she motioned the girl to pour him some.
"Don't you find it obvious? Or are you really just not careful and observant of your surroundings?" the black-haired boy got smacked on his head when he answered.
============
The five of them used their eyes to search for a vehicle to use even though it would lead their enemies right in front of them when they start their engines and explored with it.
"If only we knew how to drive." Mike reminisced about that time when he first rode a car as the driver although, his friend, Red is rightfully the one they should give credit to.
"I know how to drive!" Rissa flew across the street from the other side as soon as they brought it up, nonetheless, her sister disapproved of the idea of the older female being in charge of the steering wheel.
"Why not? I clearly have experience, and even a license since I turned 18." she confidently added, proving to be in the right mind to get them to places.
"You got that license 3 years ago! Meaning, you haven't used your knowledge and skill in a long, long period of time." the boys chuckled at the red-haired girl's remark, rummaging through the entire desolated town. "Should we be worried?"
Shawn pointed out the fact that there weren't any monsters nearby.
"Shasha does have a point, why in the world are those uncanny creatures nowhere?" Shawn rolled his eyes after hearing Rissa use that girly nickname once again.
Picking up his shoe that was drenched in all kinds of unclean liquids before attempting to fling it toward Rissa.
"Chill!" the female evaded the shoe. "Peace be to you~" clasping her hands together.
"Carrot head." the shoe which Shawn threw at Rissa attacked their chestnut-haired teammate right as he name-called the one with a carrot-like orange-haired 21-year-old female, teasing her as you call it.
"I'll call it quits if you stay away from my precious hair!" the girl refuted once she gave it a moment of thought. "Yeah, yeah! LAUGH AS YOU WISH!"
"Here." June unwrapped the bonnet of their diseased little friend, showing it to his comrade as they sat on a cement wall while the rest of the group was ahead of them, going to and fro, searching for more things that they might possibly need.
"Where did you bury her body again?" the silver-haired male let his tears fall down from his tired and restless eyes, picking up the bonnet as he looked at it for a while.
Deciding what to do next with his life in order to avenge Bonnet's unfortunate end in the hand of an undead infected being.
Bonnet's memory will forever last with him for as long as he is alive and instead of feeling so down when he learned it, he collected all the data in his brain to make use of their loss and regret to become a chance to live.
"Let's go back." his voice cracked as he came up with something.
'A brilliant idea is what you call this plan.' his younger friend scrunched his nose but Mike's puppy-like eyes paired up with his relieved smile resurfaced, and his team met him with a spiteful answer.
'Well, here we go again... We have yet another unclear discussion.'