Time flies fast, on this Saturday morning, SF city citizens don't even dare to walk around freely as before.
Fox morning news is reporting another crime occurred in Bay Nursery at Pier 96 area. Dozens of elderly men and women were killed and entire nursery is full of unknown symbols painted in blood.
Sheriff and city Mayor are talking on the TV that he had called support from garrison guards. Viewers are afraid and SF city atmosphere is full of fear, weirdness and madness.
The streets are silent, from time to time you can see local neighbors are holding guns and patrolling together with cops. There are also mad people looting the stores.
The whole city is now under martial law. But there are still some citizens going around as they need to and food shops and supermarkets in service. Patrols and garrisoned troops would stop some suspicious people and search them as they would also ask some questions.
In the Sprouts orphanage living room, children are sitting quietly and watching the news. Emuel is talking with mercenaries who came to protect them. He wants to take at least two of them with him when he is going to Cats shelter to pick up the cats with the kids.
After several minutes, the captain talked with Mill and he agreed to send his men to accompany the children. Moreover, it is not just two but three would go with the children.
Emuel told the children to prepare as they are still going to go to the cats shelter today. The children cheered as they knew they were going to get their pet today.
Along the way, their group is quite noticeable as one man is leading in the front and two men are following in the back, the middle is Emuel and a group of children around ten years old. The point is three men are armed from head to toes and they're holding guns.
While passing the neighborhood block, the garrisoned troops stopped them to ask for identities and gun licenses. Fortunately, there were several volunteering neighborhood guys who know the kids from Sprouts orphanage.
So, with their explanations , the conversations went well. After three mercenaries showed their credentials, they were allowed to continue their journey. The good thing came suddenly as a soldier and a volunteer also followed them as escorts.
The gang passed another fortified units easily with their helps.
Emuel greeted Charlie who is the owner of skydiver's cats shelter, "Hey, Charlie, I come again to support you by adopting several kittens. So, your workloads can be lower."
Charlie greeted them warmly and took them to show off his babies.
The whole shelter has two dozens of kittens who seem to be around a month old and several adult cats.
Children immediately fell in love with this place. They laughed and started to pick their love. Even Jerry and Tom were no exception. Only Jimmy showed disgusts because of his OCD.
Looking at the children picking the kittens they like, the young soldier called Lake who came along to escort them also wanted to foster a cat. So, he also joined the team as he asked Charlie how to take care of a kitten.
Only after an hour later, the gang left the shelter contentedly. Nancy and Jasmine were holding solid snow white kittens while Reese picked a bicolor kitten. Paul, Tom and Jerry picked ginger kittens but Jimmy is empty handed.
Even Lake was holding a tabby kitten as if it was his treasure.
The gang of thirteen people walked back to their neighborhood while talking and laughing.
The cheerful voices of children made the somewhat original silent streets a bit colorful.
At the supermarket, Emuel bled heavily again as there is only five hundreds dollars in his bankcard after he paid for the things, four hundreds for cats and one hundred as he bought drinks for garrisoned soldiers.
When they passed the garrisoned soldiers again, he gifted them half of the drinks generously. As for another half, he intended to give them to mercenaries who came to protect them.
Back to the orphanage, the three mercenaries went back to their posts. Children also went back to their rooms with kittens.
Emuel went into kitchen to get snacks and drinks so he could continue his introvert life in the bedroom with a book. He couldn't believe what he saw, the captain of mercenaries ,Wade, was actually trying to start the conversation with Rose who was cooking.
Actually, this started with the breakfast. Rose handed breakfast she prepared to the guys so they don't need to eat dry rations.
Who knew, Wade actually fell in love with Rose's beauty and delicious foods.
Despite of not knowing the real Rose, Wade tried to hook up with her. The result ended up in a shoulder throw by Rose. But as a strong man in his prime who just passed his thirty first birthday not long ago, how could Wade give up easily.
Therefore, he has been trying to start a good conversation with Rose since the gang left the orphanage to pick up cats.
After being punched two times in the face for annoying Rose who was playing game, Wade figured out a rule of not being too close. So, that was the scene Emuel saw, Wade was honestly standing in the corner enjoying the side view of Rose who was cooking for the lunch and asking some questions like what games do you like, songs, movies.
Emuel felt that he wanted to punch Wade too. He shouted in his heart, Rose is mine, well probably before he got a girlfriend, he added in guilty.
So, he intentionally intercepted by walking in. He then took the snacks and drinks. But he didn't leave fast like before. He helped Rose closely by preparing the dishes and taking them to the dining room next door.
From time to time, he would talk one or two things with Rose and both of them ignored Wade who was standing in the corner. The guy had to leave the room in sadness as he found out he got ignored.
During having lunch, the big dining table unexpectedly seemed a bit crowded as there were kittens in the middles.
The day continued peacefully, the evening fox news reported another crime scene which happened at a orphanage. It was a complete tragedy as bodies of children were taken away in small body bags.
Fox news anchor warned again not to take things easy and to call for supports in loud voice as possible as one can so garrisoned and patrolling forces can come and help in time.
The whole SF city is full of people who couldn't sleep tonight. In a small church, the old man heading the several people in cloaks is talking with NSA agents, "We understand the situations, but we are also facing problems, you know SF city is too big for several people of us."
The black man who is clearly the head of agent trio as he stood in front of another two also shouted in anger, "We are not angry on you, what we can't accept is there is no other religions helping us, some even have no idea."
The old man replied calmly, "NSA has files about these, you can apply permission to read them. And you will understand the difference between them and us. For now, let's just continue our job."
The old man muttered while looking at the sky full of dark clouds, "After all, the night has started."
Meanwhile in a bedroom, Emuel closed the book and touched Sora. He then looked at the dark sky habitually and talked to himself, "Are they really still alive?"
The room fell into darkness as he turned off the reading lamp. He is going to sleep early, he can't do anything anyways, as for the protection, the duty falls into mercenaries.
The whole SF city is still full of lights but nobody knows when and where a new crime would happen.