Strapping into the car, Olivia's dad hurriedly drove off as more ants and insects grew. The atmosphere in the car was heavy, creating a silent drive to contrast the chaos outside.
Attempting to break the atmosphere, Olivia cleared her throat and put on a smile.
"Ren, Jun, this is my dad. His name is Liam." Olivia pointed towards the middle aged man behind the wheel. The man waved towards the back, never keeping his eyes off the road. Ren looked at him and nodded, he carried a great resemblance to Olivia, seeing that they both had brown hair, fair skin and similar facial features.
"Hello sir." Ren and Jun both said.
"And this is my close friend Elios, he heard about this trip and wanted to come."
A tall man with blond hair similar in age to Olivia glanced back from the front, his gaze turning cold as he stared at Ren.
Sensing hostility, King got up and tried to look around. As King began to move out of the sleeves, Ren quickly covered his arm and silently told King to stay still.
"Hey." Ren said to Elios, trying to appear as friendly as possible.
Elios ignored Ren's greeting, shifting his attention onto the road. Ren awkwardly scratched his neck and introduced himself.
"My name is Ren, and this is my brother Jun" Jun waved to Olivia's dad, before ignoring Elios.
After the introductions, the atmosphere in the car became lighter. Ren, Olivia and Jun made small talk in the back, while Liam joined in occasionally. Elios looked at Ren talking with Olivia, and his glare grew colder.
Heading out of the city, Ren noticed that he hasn't seen any evacuators for a while. Suspicious at this fact, Ren tried harder to spot any humans.
"Stop the car."
The group inside the car all turned to look at Ren, who had a serious look on his face.
"Why?" Jun asked, a little unfamiliar with the serious Ren.
"Look around, there's no cars or people here. A mutant must've done this."
Elios let out a cold snort, before turning to face Ren.
"Everyone got in a car and got out, maybe you should stop being so scared and paranoid."
Ren controlled his anger, he took a deep breath and pointed to the road ahead.
"And they took the metal lamp posts with them too? The fire hydrant and bike posts too?"
The group looked at where Ren was pointing, sure enough, anything metal ahead of them was gone. Olivia and Jun quickly understood the situation and urged Liam to stop the car.
*Screeeech* The car halted to a stop and the passengers all got out. Just as they got a good distance away, a deep rumbling shook the ground beneath them.
Suddenly, a giant frog the size of a small building landed in front of the car. "Croak, Croak" The frog bent down and looked at the car, he then shot out his tongue, grabbing the car. *Gulp* In an instant, the car disappeared into the frog's stomach. Satisfied with it's meal, the giant frog bounded away.
Holding their breath in an alley way, the group watched the giant frog in disbelieve.
"That was a close one, good call Ren." Jun breathed a sigh of relieve, patting Ren on the back.
"Yeah, it was a great call." Liam added, thanking Ren as well.
Ren awkwardly accepted the appreciation before taking out his phone. Gesturing for the group to huddle together, Ren showed them a map of the city.
"we have to travel deeper into the city, and I think we should stop by here first."
The group studied the route, sharing ideas to find the best one. While the group discussed plans, Ren pulled Jun to the side.
"Sorry Jun, I know you wanted to get to Legion City to find mom and dad, but we need to get a new car and a way out first. "
Jun nodded, knowing that Ren was right, Jun didn't protest much. Patting Jun's head, Ren led the both of them went back to the group. Olivia and Liam greeted Jun and Ren, informing them of the ongoing discussion.
After an afternoon of planning, the group decided on a route and began making their way towards their destination on foot. A few hours of walking later, the group set up camp as the sun sets. Jun and Ren wandered out to find an empty house, while the rest waited.
"Hey, that one looks good."
Ren looked at where Jun was pointing, he then sighed and patted Jun's shoulder.
"Just because you want to live in a mansion, you're gonna ignore how open it is?"
Jun stuck out his tongue and kept looking. His search was stopped prematurely when he spotted a crashed car. Hurriedly patting Ren's arm, he pointed at the car.
"Look! Look! There's a crashed car!"
Jun and Ren quickly made their way to the car, anxious to see another survivor after a whole day. When the two reached the car, Ren quickly covered Jun's eyes when he saw the inside.
Jun's mood became heavy as he understood why Ren covered his eyes, he slowly pulled Ren's hand away and looked at the car crash.
The front of the car was crumpled into the wall, crushing the front passenger and driver's legs. The glass from the windshield was shattered and cut the front passengers to ribbons. The couple seemed to have died from bleeding, a slow and painful death.
As Jun mourned the two up front, Ren quickly rushed to the back and tore off the door. Jun looked at Ren in surprise as he crawled in to grab something.
"Jun, run back and tell Olivia to prepare the stone, this little girl here is alive!"
Jun's eyes widened and he bolted back towards the group, as Ren tried to carefully remove the girl from the car.