"Why did you do that...?"
Dinda was in absolute disbelief as she saw what Pati had done, he just killed the man without any empathy by punching through his head and exploding it. Her eyes look at Pati asking for an answer to the confusion she's currently feeling.
Even the other clerks of the store were aghast when they realized what just happened.
The women clerks screamed at the top of their lungs seeing some of the blood go to them, and even the entire wall got tainted with the blood of the man that Pati has just killed.
Without answering Dinda's question, Pati only looks at her coldly.
"If they're scratched by a Zombie, then don't bother saving them", he said with his normal tone as if what has just happened was something normal to him, but surely for the others aside from him what happened was shocking.
A breathing injured man got killed brutally with a powerful punch that destroyed his head.
Prior to the apocalypse, no one in the entire world would've had some experience similar to this, someone's head exploding from getting punched is not something that can possibly happen.
After saying that, Pati waves his hand to get rid of the blood before walking out.
The simple wave of his hand that is covered in blood shows how nonchalant he is as if he just killed nothing but an animal, he then walks out of the store under the others' fearful gazes. Salsa glanced back at Dinda and finds that she was still rooted on her spot.
Salsa who is also shocked approached her and held her shoulders.
"Let's find clothes to change into first, you're soaked in blood...", she said helping Dinda to stand up while simultaneously trying to avoid seeing the man's headless corpse on the side.
Meanwhile, Pati got out and finds Jeff finished off the last Walkers.
But just from a glance, Pati saw the machete that Jeff is holding is already dull from the Zombies' tough bodies and also their blood that seems to be able to dull the sharp edge of the machete. Pati then looks back at the store before he sighs and walks into a particular store.
"Yo! Where are the others?", Jeff asked while cleaning his machete with a cloth that he finds.
Hearing this, Pati points to the gift shop store where the clerks are before he disappears into the particular store with broken manikins on display without even saying anything.
Jeff went into the gift shop store and immediately his eyes landed on the clerks.
Looking that they had managed to successfully save the clerks of this gift shop, Jeff approaches them intending to check if they're hurt. But just as he walks closer, the clerks look at him with a hint of terror which confused him.
"It's okay, I'm a friend!", Jeff said assuringly.
Even after saying that in the most friendly way possible, the clerks push themselves to the corner showing that they're afraid of Jeff. This can make Jeff smile wryly, it's the apocalypse so this kind of wary attitude will be common.
Not intending to scare them any further, Jeff looks to the side.
There's a small corridor on the side with a toilet sign on top, he walks there as he heard a distant sob from inside the toilet. Knocking on the door lightly, Jeff then asks, "Dinda, Salsa, Is that you?"
Creak...
"Yes, it's us. Can you wait for a minute?", Salsa said while peeking out of the toilet.
Hearing this, Jeff nodded his head but through the gap in the door, he saw Dinda standing in front of the mirror without a top on. Her body is drenched with the blood of the man from before but she doesn't look to be hurt in any way.
Since Jeff is way taller than Salsa, he can see through the gap easily.
Looking back at Salsa in confusion, Jeff then asks, "What happened to her? Why is she drenched?"
"Make sure to check if she got scratched or something, you also check if you get scratched. Pati and I saw a survivor outside that got attacked by a Walker, and it only takes less than half a minute to turn into a Zombie", he added while shaking his head.
Salsa was surprised upon hearing this, she unconsciously glanced back at Dinda.
"Just give us a minute okay? We'll be right back", she finally replied before closing the door.
Jeff was confused as to why they are acting weird but he just shrugs it off and walks around the gift shop looking at the items here to busy himself, he also needs to rest from the fighting that is making his head banging in pain.
Meanwhile, inside the toilet.
Salsa closed the door before she glanced back at Dinda who has her face ghostly pale.
Even her breathings are short almost as if she got asthma, Salsa paused for a moment before she went to the sink and turn it on. She helped Dinda to clean off the blood covering her body, the stench of blood is something that she still doesn't use to.
While helping Dinda, Salsa then said, "You heard Jeff, you can't do anything to help that man"
"I only saw it briefly but the man was about to bite you, so maybe Pati was forced to do that just to protect you. You're the nurse of the team, you should be grateful he saved you. If it were me, I don't think he will bother saving me", she added with a wry smile.
But then, Dinda mutters lightly, "It's not about that clerk he killed..."
"Then what are you thinking if it weren't about the clerk?", Salsa asks back in confusion.
Dinda looks down to the running sink that makes somewhat felt comforting for her, she closed her eyes before a couple of people flashed in her mind. Opening her eyes, she then said, "You have a family too, right...? Then you must also know what I feel, it's been two days since the apocalypse and the more I realized that the probability of them surviving is low"
In the midst of her sentence, her voice cracks as she covers her mouth with tears falling down.
No matter how much the world has changed in this brief moment, they can still feel all of this is surreal considering that they're still laughing and chilling in their homes not long ago. It's terrifying how the situation can change so fast.
"I know... but surviving comes first, if you're dead then you're never going to meet with your families. Think about that", Salsa replied giving Dinda a bright smile despite her messy looks.
Dinda glanced at her as her eyes slowly widen, she then cracks a smile too in return.
Looking at the smile on Dinda's face shows that she agrees with what Salsa said, "I may not look like it, but I can say some cool things right? Now, let's wash the blood off of you first"
A couple of minutes later,
Just as Dinda finished cleaning the blood on her body, the toilet door suddenly busted open.
"Pati you can't do that, give them some privacy", Jeff got pushed inside the toilet trying to hold Pati back, but he got overpowered resulting in them busting into the toilet with the girls looking at them.
While scratching his head and looking down on the floor, Jeff apologized.
"I'm sorry I can't keep him away..."
After bursting into the door, Dinda and Salsa saw Pati staring at them with cold eyes. Instead of the black jacket that he usually wears, Pati is wearing a plain black t-shirt and long black gloves that cover his arms.
The clothes he's wearing should be new ones from the still bright color of the clothes.
With the fitting plain black t-shirt that hugged his body, Dinda and Salsa find what they were seeing is at the very least shocking. Underneath the black jacket he usually wore, Pati hides some manly body bulging with muscles.
Pati's arms especially are quite big, but these are all hidden by his oversized jacket.
Unknown to the girls, Pati is also shocked just a moment ago to find his body become this lean and muscular. He's an introvert that works from home and plays games in his free time, there's no schedule for him to work out.
So this kind of body looks foreign even for himself, but it's probably from his strength stat.
But then again, looking at Jeff and the girls Pati finds that they didn't change a bit despite them getting stronger. It's confusing but that's not what's important right now.
With his cold eyes, Pati looks at Dinda who seems to already calmed down.
The reason he concludes Dinda has already calmed down is that her eyes are not like before, now her eyes are bright with life as she frowns while looking at him. Pati then tossed something that he was holding to both Dinda and Salsa.
"Wear that quickly, we're going to resume our journey", Pati said before he turns around and leave.
Upon looking at this, Jeff was surprised before he ran after Pati while complaining, "You changed clothes and even gave the girls clothes but you forgot about me? Who's the simp now you fucker!"
"Shut the fuck up, you're capable so get your own clothes", Pati replied in annoyance.
While their distant chattering slowly gets further away, Salsa looks at the clothes Pati gave before she glanced at Dinda. She then saw the annoyed expression on Dinda's face that made her confused, "What's wrong?"
"Am I ugly, Salsa?", Dinda suddenly asks a random question.
Hearing this, Salsa looks down at Dinda's body which has the best curves in the perfect places. She shakes her head with absolute confidence, "Of course not, even some of the students in my major have a crush on you. You're very pretty!"
"Why did you ask something like that?"
Dinda clicks her tongue in displeasure remembering Pati who burst into the toilet, she remembered his cold eyes clearly which makes her more annoyed the more she thought about it, "That annoying guy didn't even glance down when I'm topless like this"
Looking down once again, Salsa just remembered that Dinda is topless.
She's wearing only her black bra covering her two mounds that are glistening, she just wipes the blood off of her so her body is still wet. Any guys that lands their eyes on her will absolutely topple over and would do anything for her, but it seems that doesn't apply to all guys.
"You mean Pati?", Salsa asks for confirmation.
Upon hearing the name once again, Dinda pouted while looking at the clothes she's been given, "Of course, it's Pati! So annoying...", she replied while taking off her pants.
With a wry smile, Salsa then mutters, "Maybe he's gay...?"
"That must be true, he's definitely gay", Dinda replied nodding her head repeatedly trying to convince herself that it's not her, but Pati is gay instead.
A couple of minutes later,
Pati and Jeff are sitting on the hood of a car outside of the gift shop store, they're eating chocolate bars while waiting for the girls to finish changing. Jeff right now is feeling as refreshed as ever, he already changed into clean clothes.
Just a normal black t-shirt the same as Pati's and jeans.
The plain black t-shirt is the only decent clothes around here, so Jeff is wearing the same model as the one Pati wore, "This feels nice, we're like twins!"
"Say that again and I'll knock your teeth in"
"There's no way I'm going to be twins with an idiot like you, that's a disgrace to my bloodline", Pati replied harshly making Jeff touch his chest pretending to be hurt, but soon the both of them glanced to the left seeing the girls came out of the gift shop store.
Upon looking at the girls, Jeff widens his eyes almost popping his eyes out of their sockets.
Salsa is wearing a white baggy tee with a black skull drawing on the front, she also wears track pants that will not hinder her if she's trying to move. On the other hand, Dinda is wearing the same white tee but since she's bigger on the chest area the white tee got pulled up almost looking like a crop top.
It exposes her fit belly but she used a black crop jacket as an outer, and instead of track pants, she's using a black jogger instead which also wouldn't limit her movement if she's fighting.
'I thought as much...', Pati thought while looking at Dinda.
Dinda is bigger than Salsa but the clothes in the store have no size except for small and medium sizes, so he also took a black jacket expecting that the white tee would be too tight for her.
"At least you have the decency of bringing me the black jacket", Dinda said turning her head away.
Ignoring her remarks, Pati got off of the car's hood before stretching his body, "Alright let's move again, me and Jeff already checked the surroundings and finds a safe route for us"
"What about the clerks inside?", Salsa asks with a hint of concern.
Pati looks back at the gift shop store and finds the clerks peeking from the window, he then averted his gaze back to Salsa and replied, "Don't bother with them. They don't seem to trust us, so there's no point in saving them"
"Let's just go", he added.
From the exchange before, the clerks are afraid of Pati so they're hesitant to ask for their help.
'That's the best outcome currently, getting more people into our group will just makes us a meaty target for the Zombies', Pati thought before he shifted his eyes in a direction before he dashes away.
"Don't be too slow or you'll get left behind", Jeff said before he too run after Pati.
Giving the clerk one last hesitant look, Dinda steeled her resolve. In order to meet her family, she needs to survive, and the best possibility of surviving right now is currently following Pati.
"Please be safe!", Salsa said to the clerks with a slight bow.
After bidding goodbye, both of them also run after Pati and Jeff who are already at the end of the street before turning right upon meeting a junction.