Mike and Shawn assisted the girls on their trip whilst the other two males were carrying all the equipment they owned, wasting no more time in slacking off.
"We have to find this particular town called Fes."
Shawn guided them using an updated map that Blessy had printed for him, the team didn't have that much problem in terms of traveling on foot...
However, the seven survivors encountered yet another conflict.
============
"Did you think that you would get away from me??" Francis Kyzer, the other silver-haired male cornered his last prey of the day, dodging an attack initiated by the southern living undead. "Those tricks don't work on me, buddy!"
He exposed his unnatural form, digging his nails through the face of his enemy before headbutting the creature.
His hair became frozen as ice with its color becoming brighter than ever, his skin turning pale than normal due to the drop in temperature around his environment.
Another storm was approaching in broad daylight, and not because of weathering.
"They are migrating here."
Kyzer raised one of his hands in the air, feeling the cold breeze caused by the rest of the monstrous undead enemies that were beginning to occupy the southern island.
"For as long as I've known my friends, I am all the more aware that they will be heading here." from that point on, the silver-haired half-infected male made his preparations for the arrival of his friends.
Fully unaware of what is to come when they do arrive at their final destination.
"Can we take a break?!" Blessy was acting incredibly egregious to the others while Rissa was already calmed down and beginning to get through the mood swings though her menstruation kept flowing as days went by.
The entire team was thrown away by the on-and-off cooperation with each other, even the group of guys, themselves.
"We have been taking a full damn break for these past days, Sydney!" the carrot-headed older sister gently took control in watching over her sister while the rest of them in the group scouted the premises.
They arrived in yet another desolate town which raised numerous questions in their thoughts, it was undoubtedly a sign that there was something going on that they still hadn't figured out by now.
"I feel as if we shouldn't be out here in the open whether or not there are enemies hiding and waiting to ambush us..." Shawn analyzed using his head.
"I doubt that this means something." Blessy was wriggling like a worm and snuggling with her sister inside a tent near one of the laundry stations.
They occupied a large amount of space and distanced themselves to make sure that if any of them were in trouble or caught by the monsters at least some of them could escape without getting harmed.
'What a bemusing strategy~'
Blessy was slowly feeling a little better than before because of her menstruation getting disrupted and potentially ending much earlier than her sister's.
"We still don't fully have their trust." she spoke to Rissa.
"Just leave things as it is, go with the flow, and don't throw." like they always did, letting people use them and not take anything personally or enforcing themselves to people who don't like them. "I hate that mindset of ours."
Blessy said, creating a space between them both once she finally regained her proper self, gazing at Rissa like nothing happened.
"Again with you ungrateful people." she joked about their offensive behavior, shrugging the thought off afterward. "Girls!"
Ace came running to their tent with a bike, looking morbid as if a crisis had once again interrupted their peaceful journey.
Without any word, they detached the ladies' tent before fleeing from that place.
"What in the world did you guys get into??" the sisters were out of breath, captivating the attention of the others. "A beast was chasing Mike, he was supposed to keep an eye on our spot but ended up luring that seemingly red living undead into our tent."
Shawn gave his older friend another catalytic hit on the back, shaking his head.
"That does sound bad, what happened to him?" Rissa pointed at the chestnut-haired male on her right, pulling Blessy closer to her upon realizing that Ace was wounded.
"Don't tell me you got bitten..." instead of distancing himself, June walked up to his older friend, lifting the guy's shirt and exposing a somewhat huge notorious burn.
"The good news is, he wasn't bitten nor will he turn into one of them..." their leader came back from a corner of the tunnel which they undecidedly entered for the sake of their safety, announcing his diagnosis on his comrade's state.
"Bad news." Rissa straightforwardly anticipated hearing the opposing kind of news.
"He is in pain."
"Is that it?" she answered, getting up on her feet and heading to where Ace was staying. "Where are you going, sis?" Blessy too got up from her seat, following the carrot-headed female. "Checking on our teammate." she labeled him.
"And how about you, sweetie? What do you plan on doing this time?"
Rissa gave her a fake smile with her emotionless eyes giving emphasis on a 'don't you dare follow me' look on her face, meanwhile, Shawn came back with a rather new and unexpected person behind him.
"Cyrus?" June was dumbfounded with all of their eyes and ears questioning him.
But it turns out... "It's another mimicry!!" Blessy immediately attacked the entity behind the black-haired teammate as soon as she saw another one of those colorful particles in her vision. 'I forgot all about that crying child...'
The group helped her in terms of battling with a powerful undead creature that can mimic those that it encounters.
"How did you quickly find out about that..?" her sister apprehended the creature before cutting off its head, letting the sliced body part roll away from the rest of its body.
"It was just a gut feeling." the red-headed female denied anything that she was unsure of, misleading the others and deceiving them, even herself...
"Are you feeling okay, sis? You often make that expression on your face when you don't know something." her sister was checking on her while the guys cleared the mess there was at the entrance of a tunnel.
A tunnel wherein monsters could enter and spot them at any time.
"Listen, I know something is going on with you lately." the two ladies stepped aside, and Rissa gave way for her younger sister to get comfortable at an upper corner.
"Careful there! We found a railway beneath the debris, any moving train could come in and out of this tunnel, girls!"
Mike and Shawn were once again using the intercoms to contact them, given the fact that they had a great distance from each other to let the two sisters have their moment.
"Thanks for the info." Rissa briefly replied.
"Now, tell me." she waited for a long time to do this, to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her younger sister, Rissa was patiently sitting beside her sister who had no sign of ever spilling a thing and so, she assured Blessy that even if it took another decade for her to open up, she would be willing to respect that.
"Thank you... You know me very well, I never say anything that I am not quite knowledgeable about." Blessy answered Rissa but her sister had her chin way up to the point that she was practically staring at the high ceiling of the tunnel.
"What's the matter with you?" the red-headed young lady laughed at Rissa for acting like she was having a nosebleed, lightly hitting her on the arm as they walked side by side in a good mood despite the harrowing of their behavior for the recent days that have passed.
"Your vocabulary still amazes me. I thought you were only good with tech."
"Is that an insult or a compliment?" they were laughing here and there on the way back, however, they came to a stop when suddenly...
"Quiet down, you guys! They're going to catch us." the voice of Shawn echoed in the halls because the atmosphere became utterly silent with nothing but their audible movements.
============
"What a shithole this is..." Rissa was complaining about the room they were trapped in, looking back at the group of guys who kept on luring an endless amount of their enemies.
"This is getting more and more suspicious."
"Let's not play the blame game around here." Blessy stood her ground as Shawn responded to her sister about their current situation as they had gone through the tunnel.
"I get it that you're on your period but never..! You hear me? Dare to abuse that reasoning of yours." the group was surprised by the short auspicious declaration of the black-haired male, he was done with the impatience of each and every single one of them in the room.
"Hold onto your horses, cowboy~" the red-headed female chuckled.
"We mustn't create such a distraction in the middle of a panic attack we're all having right now." she reminded them to calm down and think before they speak, or even act.
"You're lucky that your red days are over, Bliss." Rissa pointed out that, it didn't matter anymore since they were already back to their usual personalities.
"Do you think it is safe to say that we can go out now?" Ace checked to confirm with the others, peaking out the double door with a damaged doorknob, they all shook their heads in disagreement upon hearing another loud noise.
Little did they know that it was all according to the plan of a mysterious old man.
He was crawling above them, going in and out of the plentitude of small passages that were built for a purpose. 'A purpose that I intended for this.' he knew that the group of survivors had a few individuals who possessed a very special genetic material.
"A material that I urgently need to get a sample of..."
'Or I could just do the same as what I had done with their friend.' a smile crept on his face as he imagined the process of his domination in the whole world once he had found the right specimens for his still ongoing study that caused the infection.
"I see someone!" Blessy caught sight of the crawling man as some floating particles originating from his presence came into the girl's peripheral vision.
"What man? And how exactly are you seeing out there? It's already dark."
June asked, shutting the double door before the surrounding living undead had a chance to notice them. "Come to think of it, why is it always so dark when action comes around?"
Blessy had a moment of thinking about it, they were all perplexed at the sound of the roars created by their enemies that surrounded the tunnel.
It was becoming dark again as another crisis arose.
'I see things that no one else can...' she figured that she was no longer normal.
They used circumlocution in speaking to the others as they spent their entire night in the tunnel, stuck inside a room as they laughed and got to know each other deeper.
And finally, all of them got rid of the thought that they were all being solipsistic after hearing each of their backgrounds, including the group of boys who were already friends.
They have learned much more than what they deemed to know before.
The group was determined to stay up all night for the sake of their precious time being preserved. "We have gotten enough sleep time which is why none of us will be dozing off tonight!" Blessy encouraged the others to remain careful and be wide awake.
"I am serious, Shawn." the red-headed 19-year-old girl pointed at the black-haired male.
Calling him out right as she caught him brazenly smiling. "Got anything?" Rissa and Ace were glued together while scouting the tunnel little by little in the dark.
They were both holding each other hand-in-hand like the task they were given would eventually be their last.
Given the idea of lurking undead living beings in the same place and time as them...
Nothing could ascertain their absolute safety and life assurance, additionally, with an old man in plain sight as Blessy remembered from hours earlier.
"These things are perfect for my ultimate project to be initiated soon..." the man continued to crawl around.
'Might even be tomorrow night if they are sure to be put under the influence.' secretly but shamelessly, the antagonist of their deceased world was sluggishly unraveling his plans and crimes that he committed not too long ago.
Blessy, however, was aware of the unusual events happening for a while now. "I feel as if someone is watching every one of our movements, including the conversations we have..." but at the same time, she can't seem to point out.
"Does it not always feel like that?"
Mike responded, the girl across him raised her hand before he let her leave the room, and the other survivor automatically knew what he was left to do.
"Another responsibility for me~" which would be to keep an eye out on their equipment in the room. "Girls and their uncertainty..." the silver-haired male remarked upon analyzing the scenario that occurred between him and the other individual.
On the other hand, Shawn, fortunately, saw Blessy before she had the chance to walk out without prior notice to them, he leaped from his seat and then made his way to her.
"Bequeath, I shall!" he passed on a can of soda to the other survivor.
He received nothing but a full smack on the face while also awakening their enemies by the loudness of his voice.
"What is wrong with you, Shawn?" she whispered aggressively with her eyes following an upcoming trail of the hoard's pathway they both wasted not a mere second to run and grab everything as well as everyone else, escaping the spotted disturbance in which they were located by the infected creatures before they get ambushed.
"Not another one." Ace noticed a spark of fire light in the distance as he and Rissa successfully obtained a wide area to use as their new hideout in case they were required to abandon their current one. "Right on time." Rissa facepalmed.
The two of them gave a glance at one another before taking off their vision gear, finally getting a clear and proper glimpse of their fellow survivors, also known as their teammates. "Let us get ready to pull them inside!" they ordered in unison, quickly rushing to the new hiding place they sought.
Ace left the girl with a carrot-like hairstyle to guide the rest of their friends.
They were sprinting in reverse as it was necessary to appeal their presence to the other unit, warily waving and motioning them to follow their trail.
"They are telling us something." Shawn pulled the two to himself so they could execute an escape plan without any sort of difficulty but someone, in particular, was practically occupied in her train of thoughts instead of thinking about their current situation up ahead.
'Do we have to be this close??' Blessy couldn't help rolling her eyes.
"I know what you're thinking but don't make anything out of this!"
Shawn had no intention to take advantage of her, clarifying his only goal there which is to remove an entire load of burden from their shoulders as the hoard of undead creatures chased the hell out of the group of survivors.
"I did not say anything!" the girl stated.
"What are you waiting for?" Ace dragged Blessy as the girl unexpectedly came to a stop, staring at something from afar while the rest of them entered the new hideout.
Both doors were shut up as soon as everyone safely got inside, leaving the group to question Blessy and her strange behavior once more.
"Are you drunk, sis? Because if you are, come here!" Rissa scolded her sister, threatening to give her a hit on the head so that she could become more sober if she truly was under the influence of alcohol. "No- I mean, I thought I saw a man..."
The others were wondering about what she had meant because they were men outside, only that they were unalive.
"I think you have been hallucinating ever since you encountered that infected child back in the neighborhood."
"What child is he talking about?" Rissa questioned as well after Shawn mentioned what some of them had missed prior to when they were attacked and forced to leave their campsite the day before.
============
Another day has gone by without any progress for the team, each of them minded their things to do with their assigned roles in the group.
"Blessy, our conversation about that child isn't over yet!" the carrot-headed female shouted as her younger sibling walked out of the door, planning to find out who that man was that she had seen last night.
'Right, that crying infant whom I was forced to feed with my blood...' she was determined to use what she gained from the crying infant she encountered after being manipulated and fell under the spell of the sound waves that led her to it.
"Where are you going this time? It's not a guarantee that it is safe out there right now." Shawn took hold of the girl's shoulder, causing her to turn and face the other survivors. "Red is already nowhere to be found, and you're leaving too." Mike tried to guilt trip the red-headed 19-year-old female as she undoubtedly rolled her eyes.
"I am tired of having people hold me back from what I want to do." she confessed as an answer to all of their questions, simply expressing herself without even considering think about the bond they shared, however, she knew that there would always be a line that they would not wish to cross, and so...
"Just because I intend to go somewhere all on my own, doesn't automatically mean that I am abandoning you guys. Of course, I'll always come back to do what I do best... Which is helping others find their ways." she finished off the last bit of her thoughts right as the door flung open, and the huge red monster swung its head toward their equipment.
"I was about to cry but shit! This thing is sick!" Rissa commented as she hid under the table, not knowing the next thing they were supposed to do as a team.
Mike, on the other hand, was thrown off guard by the sudden burst of the door since he was nearest to it, having blocked Blessy alongside Shawn.
"Everyone! Get up, get your stuff, and attack the thing." Ace ordered them as soon as he gained enough strength to talk as the red living undead seriously made all of them fall to the ground, except for Blessy who was attempting to fight it.
'I must analyze the situation before handling it. The creature didn't seem to attack them directly as well which is good.'
Every survivor in that compartment was facing the red living monster while Blessy, on the other hand, was chasing the man she had seen a couple of times before, creepily stalking their team for whatever reason she was not fully aware of.
"Bléirré!! Wait up." Rissa and the others hardly managed to escape the crisis that added up to their other problems before this one, she was calling for her younger sister as they were still being tracked down by the red living undead.
'But honestly, I know for a fact that the monster isn't on our trail anymore...' the red-headed female had a grin on her face while speedily leaping ahead of them, trying to get closer to the man who had the power to control their friend.
'A friend whom they may or may not be able to have around like before.' the girl presumed to herself.