"Interesting," Bruce said while analyzing the path ahead by using the night vision googles. "It looks like we have some brave survivors in this area… brave or perhaps stupid."
Bruce wasn't smart either, so he couldn't tell if the people around that area were brave or stupid. In any case, he couldn't see any signs of damaged power poles. There was some cars upside down on the path ahead, but it was just that.
"There are survivors here?" Diane asked. "How you can tell?"
"I don't see any sign of monster on the streets, the power poles aren't damaged either," Bruce replied. "Hence, I can only assume that someone turned off the power of this entire region in order to not let the monsters find them. The plan worked, but I wonder what they are waiting for…"
Diane thought that Bruce was making a lot of assumptions there. However, she could understand where he was coming from. The signs were obvious that someone turned off the power of that entire region, after all, it was only part of the city that was completely dark. In any case, finding survivors was a good thing. At least for Diane since she doubted that she would find anyone with a loose screw more than Bruce. If anything, the fact that they should to hide instead of fight was proof enough that they wouldn't put Diane and Chris on any dangerous situation.
"Do you think you can find them?" Diane asked.
"Nope," Bruce replied. "This is a night vision googles, not heat vision googles. Besides, I'm not sure even if I had one of them, I would be able to locate them. Since they decided to turn off the power of the entire region, then they should smart enough to hide in the deepest parts of some safe building."
Bruce was right, but Diane wouldn't give up with just that. After thinking for a while, she came up with an idea that might help her. It was a bit dangerous, but it wasn't more dangerous than staying with Bruce for a few more hours.
"Can you give me your flashlight?" Diane asked. "We can alert the survivors of our presences if we use it. That way, we won't attract any monster by making any noise."
"Yeah, but the flashlight will alarm all monsters in the vicinities," Bruce said. "I didn't see them, that doesn't mean that they aren't sleeping somewhere nearby."
Bruce was just being realistic cautious, but Diane didn't look like very pleased with that answer. In the end, Bruce sighed and just passed the flashlight to her after realizing the condition of his body. Although he magically got stronger after fighting for a few hours, it didn't change the fact that he was mentally and physically tired. As much as Bruce was enjoying the magical apocalypse, he was just a lazy gamer. Doing exercises and fighting for hours wasn't something his current body could endure. In the end, Bruce decided to take a break, until at least he completes the next quest.
Although Diane wanted to give her position to the possible nearby survivors, she ended up looking for any signs of them on the path ahead. It was quite tiring to move in the total darkness with a single flashlight illuminating things. While Diane and Chris were looking for such signs, Bruce was using the night vision googles to investigate the nearby buildings. Although he lived in a relatively small city, the center of the town had a all kinds of shops and buildings. Bruce was looking for a place where he could find male clothes and also a backpack. Carrying so many things inside his broken suitcase was proving to be more annoying than he had imagined.
At the time the monsters appeared, most shops had closed. However, some establishments still worked at Saturday evening and they would keep working until late at night. Restaurants were one of those places, and unfortunately, Bruce found one before he could find a clothing store. Finding a restaurant made Bruce realize that he hadn't eaten anything since morning. He was starving and adrenaline was the only thing that was making his body move forward. Such thoughts disappeared from his head when he saw the destruction inside the restaurant. Although he couldn't see many colors with his night vision googles, he could smell what those black stains on the floor were and he didn't have to be a genius to understand what were those stones in weird shapes. Just like the lobby of his apartment, that restaurant had been a place where monsters run wild.
"Mmm?" Bruce frowned when he saw a trail of blood that was coming out from the restaurant and moved all the way to other side of the road and lead them to a fancy hotel. "I guess this is a good place for you to find other survivors."
Bruce said and then made Diane point her flashlight to trail of blood. She opened her eyes widely when she noticed that the person who shed that blood managed to move so much given that amount.
"We are going to investigate this hotel," Diane declared. "What are you going to do?"
"I definitely will find some food and clothes here," Bruce said. "Might as well rest here while you use my flashlight. I will need it back, after all."
The hotel wasn't that big, so Bruce knew they wouldn't waste much time in there. As one would expect, the lobby of the hotel was completely destroyed. Bruce finally found some corpses of monsters there, but the vast majority belonged to humans. By the position of the corpses, Bruce concluded that most humans there died while trying to run away. It was insanity to show their backs to monsters…
Regardless, the elevator wasn't working, but Bruce and the others saw the door that would lead to the stairs was locked. Their hunch had been correct, some survivors were hiding there.
"Step back," Bruce said and then equipped his long sword. "I will destroy this door."
"Wait! You can't!" Diane protested.
"Yes, I can," Bruce frowned. "You might be thinking this door is the last line of defense of the survivors here, but you couldn't be more wrong. Anyone crazy enough to turn off the power of the entire region wouldn't rely on a single door to keep themselves away from monsters. They probably barricaded themselves in the rooms. Besides, I'm not leaving without getting some food and a change of clothes."
At first, Bruce's words seemed reasonable, but at the end of the day, Diane knew that he was just being egoistic. However, he had a point. Bruce wanted to just stop for one hour or two there, but Diane wanted to stay there for the rest of the night with Chris. It was too dangerous to move in that dark region without a clear goal. It was better to stop there and wait until dawn to look for more survivors.
"Wait, let me handle this," Diane said.