[Lyon's POV]
"...I'm not gonna bother asking why, It's quite obvious as to what encouraged you to ask me of this. Just know that once you pull the trigger, there will be no room for regrets, no chance to undo what's already been done. Is that understood?" I asked Chisato as the two of us stood in the kitchen, an easy nod managing to find its way back to me as she showed no hesitation whatsoever.
"Very well, ask for the Type 54 from Alyssa and meet me back at the second floor's terrace. I wouldn't want any accidents to occur after all." I tell Chisato before moving closer to the stairway as I slowly went up with each step that was accompanied by small creaks from the stair's wooden surface.
We had already finished barricading the two entrances back on the first floor so I had no plans of pushing them aside when we could just use the terrace instead. I put my hand over the door's handle and pulled it open, a warm breeze greeting me as I looked at the front yard's two closed gates before turning my gaze at the streets below.
'I'll just limit it to the practical knowledge, I wouldn't want her to shoot a bullet and call a bunch of those zombies to our location.' I think to myself while looking through the gaps of the terrace's railing. I spent a few seconds in silence before it was interrupted by the sound of the door behind me opening which prompted me to turn my attention to Chisato who was moving closer with the gun in her hand.
I spent the next 15 minutes teaching her the basics of the gun, giving her advice about how she should limit it to slow single shots since she was still inexperienced. The gun had a Glock's safety action trigger and still needed to have its hammer brought down before you can even shoot it so I made sure to point those out after I taught her how to eject the mag and reload the gun.
"Don't rely on it too much, it's a handgun which means the effective range isn't as good as my rifle. It's quite noisy too so just use it as a last resort against both zombies and humans." I tell Chisato who nods to my words after I gave her the gun, I had already made her repeat the same actions of reloading the gun, disengaging, and re-engaging the safety so I was confident that she at least knew that much.
"Alyssa should have the other magazine that had 4 bullets in her fanny pack and make sure to keep your finger out of the trigger unless you plan to shoot." I reminded Chisato who turned her attention back to me as she was already about to go back into the house. "We'll understand if you want to be alone for a while... just know that we'll be right here with you, okay?"
"I... just give me some time to sort myself out. Thank you, Lyon." Chisato whispers back, a forced smile finding its way onto her face as she turned her attention back to the door that led to the second floor. The slow and quiet sound of the door opening and closing came to pass before I turned my attention back to the outside world, its cruel and desolate landscape only served as something for a person to gaze at while reminiscing over the lost past.
~2 hours later~
"Are you guys sure about this?" Onishi asks while looking at the sandwich that stayed close to his face. It was already 7 PM and with all of our tasks done, all that remained to be finished was to eat dinner and sleep. The stove seemed to be working just fine but whoever looted this place took whatever cooking utensil they could since not even a frying pan or serving spoon remained.
We were all currently seated on the floor with both my companions and our prisoners close by. The dining table was used as a barricade for the side door, the couch was used for the front door, and three of the four chairs were used on the door for the terrace while the last one was kept unused for the guard.
'The decision to use the chairs as barricades for the terrace was a last-minute one since it already had railings meant to stop intruders from climbing up but it never hurts to be cautious.' I thought to myself before turning my attention back to the prisoner that sat directly in front of me.
"Just eat it already and stop second-guessing, if you're afraid that it has poison then you're worrying over nothing. I'd have killed you with my machete instead of wasting poison on you if I wanted you dead. Just look at your little brother, he has already eaten more than half of his sandwich." I tell Onishi while pointing his sandwich at his little brother.
We had no plans of taking off their restraints just yet so we had to feed them ourselves. Alyssa seemed to still carry a grudge with Onishi while we didn't want to put too much strain on Chisato just yet so the only candidates for the job were me and Ren. He volunteered to take care of the child so I was left with force-feeding/helping Onishi instead.
"I... thank you, and sorry about earlier." Onishi whispers back before biting off a piece of the sandwich that I held toward him with my left hand since I needed the other one to carry my sandwich. His hesitation earlier seemingly disappeared after just a few bites as the entire sandwich was already gone after just a few seconds.
"Don't rush, you'll waste all that hard work of yours surviving only to end up choking to death because of bread." I reprimanded him before throwing the plastic case of the sandwich to the side as I hovered a water bottle over his mouth. He drank about half of the water bottle in that single seating before sighing in satisfaction as I took the bottle away again.
We had also already asked Onishi what his parents looked like so we no longer had any more concerns to worry about for now. I had promised to try my best to not kill their parents but that promise can easily be broken if we find ourselves in a situation wherein apprehending them comes with too high of a risk to be considered.
"Anyway, you should ask Ren about your sleeping arrangements. He'll be taking the first ship, Alyssa will be taking the second shift while I'll take the third and fourth" I tell everyone here with Chisato seemingly about to raise her concerns only to fail as I managed to speak up faster. "Don't worry about the night shift today, we'll handle it for tonight so just rest as much as possible."
"Thank you, everyone... I'll make sure I'm back to a hundred percent tomorrow and return the favor." Chisato whispers back while doing what was the best smile she could muster on her face as her voice trailed off during the latter half of her statement. The other two had been comforting Chisato the entire time so I guess they at least somehow managed to get through to her depressed state along the way.
"Don't bother, I'm gonna go sleep in the parent's room. Ren, take charge and make sure all of the windows and doors are locked. Don't turn on the lights too since that'll be a beacon for looters." I told the others before standing up from the floor's cold and hard surface, the same one that the prisoners would be sleeping on if they were unable to think up ways to sleep more comfortably.
"Alyssa, I think it'd be better if you were to sleep with Chisato for tonight." I whispered to Alyssa after we had reached the second floor and were outside of Chisato's earshot. As much as I wanted to sleep on the same bed as Alyssa, a warm presence beside Chisato might end up doing wonders, especially so after all of today's events.
She doesn't reply, opting to just nod to my words and leave me with a short kiss before she made her way to the pink color-themed room meant for the children of this house's original inhabitants. Surprisingly, not a single picture frame of the family that lived here remained, forcing me to just piece together small bits and pieces of logical conclusions from the house's contents and structure.
I shrugged away those useless thoughts, after all, what use would there be in trying to learn of the house's former inhabitants? In the end, all that mattered was that we had shelter for the night and that we'd be leaving in the morning for our next destination. I moved closer to the door before going inside, the darkness of the second-floor hallway as well as the fact that I was now alone merely served to further convince me that I should go to bed.
I take off the layers of armor and extra clothing on me before laying on the bed's smooth and comfortable surface. Its soft memory foam willing me to a night of sleeping that hopefully, would be one without any problems as I'd really rather not go through another robber incident.
~A few hours later~
I woke up to the feeling of smooth vibrations coming from my left pant pocket, a telltale sign that it was 1:45 AM which was a mere 15 minutes away from my assigned schedule. The dream I had tonight was too exaggerated and random to cause worry within me. It was a far cry from the one I had yesterday that had details that just seemed too life-like to be dismissed as just another random dream like this.
'The stark contrast between the two is just way too huge to ignore, so does that mean my dreams are a precaution? It wouldn't exactly be the weirdest thing to have happened to me...' I thought to myself while scratching at my two eyes in an attempt to shake away the remains of sleepiness.
I spent the next 3 minutes putting back on my bulletproof vest before placing my hoodie and the sports equipment over it. The multiple layers of clothing made it very easy for me to sweat but it was a sacrifice I was willing to take if it meant another day of staying human. I left the room and closed the door as quietly as I could after securing the police utility belt around me, making my way to the stairway as quietly as possible since I knew that it was Alyssa's turn on the night shift.
I was expecting her to be guarding the prisoners on the first floor but I instead found all three of them on the stairs. Alyssa was looking down the stairway, a direct gaze aimed at the older sibling who was staring back in fear at his captor. Onishi manages to notice me walking closer to Alyssa, his gaze turning to me with eyes that seemed to have been begging for help, a gaze that I just chose to shrug off and ignore.
I quietly tiptoed closer to Alyssa, the stair's wooden floorboards seemingly chose to support me by not creaking out a single sound until I was directly behind her standing figure. I wrapped my arms around her from behind, leaning my head onto her shoulder as I sniffed the nigh-disappearing scent of my family's shampoo on her hair.
Her muscles became tensed for the first few seconds before relaxing once more as she held onto her shotgun with one hand, and placed the other over mine. Onishi, who had previously been carrying a scared expression had morphed into one of pure shock for some reason as he watched Alyssa lean her head over mine.
"You're starting to scare the child, Alyssa." I whispered to her before closing my eyes, sighing happily as I hugged her figure closer. The feeling of her chest rising and falling as she breathes in and out was accompanied by her sigh before she opened her closed eyes to look at me with a smile. Her gaze was one filled with warmth and care, a gaze that I was returning as well as we brought our two faces closer.
"I'm sorry." Alyssa whispers back before her lips managed to reunite with my own, bringing forth a simple kiss that filled both of our chests with comfort and happiness due to the intimate act we shared. Though I wanted to go deeper into the kiss, the fact that someone else was watching us do it made me hesitate enough to stop right then and there.
"You should go to sleep, I'll handle it from here." I whispered back to Alyssa before sitting down on the stair that she was standing on. She sits down as well, preferring to just stay here and lean her head onto my shoulder instead of going to sleep in the now vacant bed of the parent's room.
"Mh, I'd rather not. This pillow beside me seems more comfortable than a bed after all." Alyssa tells me, her voice growing more silent after each word that came out of her mouth. My new position gave me a front view of our two sibling prisoners, one of which was the younger sibling who was sleeping on the stair's wooden surface while using one of the couch's cushions as a pillow.
About one hour went past rather quickly as I listened to the light snores coming from Alyssa's sleeping figure. She had stayed true to her words and just slept in the stairway with her head leaned against me. We had been lucky enough to have a night that's been devoid of any problems, something a person like me is grateful for as a good night's rest was always something a person needed but rarely ever actually got.
Alyssa began releasing light snores just minutes after I had arrived so I spent a good portion of the previous hour just sitting in silence as Onishi had fallen asleep once more. Such a fact did not last long though as I began noticing light movements coming from his previously sleeping figure, a few failed and half-assed attempts at stretching later and he finally begins looking at his surroundings.
"Ugh, what time is it?" Onishi asks while looking at me for answers, not a single bit of his previously scared tone had remained as if he was entirely confident that we were going to let them go. Not that he was wrong of course but he sure changed his tone rather quickly for someone who has their hands restrained.
"It should be about 3 AM right now, you're acting rather calm for someone who's a prisoner." I answered Onishi's question while voicing out a few of my thoughts as well. He stays silent for a few seconds, turning his gaze at his still sleeping little brother before placing his sights on both me and Alyssa's motionless figure.
"I overheard your conversation with the other two people in your group, you're obviously the leader in that small group of yours and I doubt you'd be willing to break the trust they have with you after promising to let us go." Onishi tells me, his voice laced with confidence, his ability to judge the situation was something I found a bit annoying but his statement wasn't wrong either.
"I'm afraid of you, yes, but that person sleeping beside you is someone I'm definitely fucking frightened off." Onishi quickly adds in, causing my curiosity over the scene I had been presented with earlier when I first arrived here to rise as I had chosen to just shrug it off earlier.
"Oh? Mind telling me the reason for this feeling of yours directed at my Alyssa?" I quietly asked while looking at Alyssa's sleeping figure from the corner of my eyes, making sure that she has yet to wake up so that I could ask Onishi my question. I knew she had managed to act the bad cop role rather convincingly but I didn't think it had such an effect on Onishi's view of Alyssa.
"She told me that the only reason she hasn't killed me yet was since you didn't want me dead. Going so far as to even directly aim the shotgun at me point blank just to sca-" Onishi quietly whispers only to look away while shivering in fear as I felt Alyssa weakly move in her sleep before settling back down to a comfortable position.
I quietly chuckled while watching his cowering figure, finding the fact that he had been cowed into fear by simple movement coming from Alyssa's sleeping form to be quite comical as I found satisfaction in watching the calm smile that appeared on her face.
~A few hours later~
"Are all of the bags inside?" I asked Ren and Chisato who gave me nods of affirmation in return. Everyone had woken up an hour earlier than usual so we had a lot of extra time meant to do whatever we had to. This gave us the breathing space to eat breakfast early and to start packing up the bags of supplies we had taken out of the car yesterday including the pink and purple bags we had filled with convenience store supplies.
"That's good, wait for me in the car. I'll handle freeing the two siblings." I tell my two companions who leave without a second thought as I moved closer to Alyssa who was guarding the two siblings in the living room. I tell her to go ahead of me, a request she quickly accepts before leaving me alone with the two siblings who were already standing up.
"If you ever decide to leave the house then don't go near the bridge or the urban sector of the city and only go out when it's dark. My best advice is to get out of the city and try to find any sort of kayak or boat. You should be capable of swimming across the river if you force yourself but your little brother might not have the stamina for crossing it." I tell the two siblings while untying the younger brother's restraints.
"If you're lucky, you might be able to leave the city as a human, and if you still are then you should be able to reach the military-controlled evacuation center south of Mt. Shinzan. It's located on a minor road connected to routes 369 and 228 but try to avoid walking through those major roads." I voiced out while freeing Onishi before moving closer to the doors leading outside.
"I don't remember hearing about an evacuation camp outside the city, how do you know all of this?" Onishi asks me, causing me to stop walking before I could even reach the door so I could turn my gaze at the two children behind me.
"I know a lot of things, don't worry about it. I'd wish you luck but you did try to kill me yesterday so maybe I should offer it to your little brother instead." I bantered to the two, receiving a quiet chuckle from the younger sibling as I placed my hand over his head while Onishi just snorted. "I never did ask so I might as well do it now. What is your name little one?"
"My name is Ishida, Ishida Masaru. What's your name mister?" The younger sibling now known as Ishida asks. I at first thought of just giving him a fake name but he has probably overheard my name already so I found no real reason to trick him anymore. I give him my name, the knife, and advice telling them to lock and barricade the doors as soon as I went outside. They seemed all too eager to ignore said advice though as they waved us goodbye from the driveway as we drove for our next destination, the academy.
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AN: Not gonna lie, I think I ended up making the two siblings more fleshed out than I was originally planning to. I was originally planning to just keep and tuck them away as nameless characters that'll never appear again but who knows? Maybe they'll somehow reach the evacuation camp (Nexus) that Lyon mentioned in this chapter one day.
Ok so I'll be honest with you, I didn't think much of the place where Nexus would be situated when I first wrote this so I've only just started looking through google maps for a suitable location that carries the same vague descriptions I've been giving in the past. South of Mt Shinzan is a minor road that connects route 369 to route 228 (google maps) while also being situated somewhat close to the town of Shizukuishi which should be a suitable location for my second arc.
I'll keep things vague just to be safe since I don't know how "realistic" I can keep writing this without getting into any trouble so I'll just keep the names and locations of places they go to as vague as possible without damaging the story. I might be overthinking this but it's better to be safe than sorry.