Zed had been in many dangerous situations, but for him, this was a new one.
It was within his expectations though to be caught in trouble like this, to be stranded in the sea, with nothing but his few rations and a map to refer on.
Currently, his yacht was floating in the empty ocean unimpeded. One thing good about the ocean was the lack of undead, and while the passing notions of Sea Beasts were concerning, it didn't really bother him as they were most likely congregated on the deep sea. He had A-Dolph's confidence with regard to this.
"Meow..."
The cat stared at the ocean watching out for any ship. He had made a good distance before he ran out of fuel. He made sure to fill the tank before he set off, yet his situation had proven that he did not have enough. If it weren't for the danger of undead, he would have dared collect more gasoline, but that would be to his detriment.
For a very long time, Zed had survived by being non-confrontational. Never did he seek out the undead that ruled the Earth. Zed knew better not to mess with humans even after death. However, he would not know about the rising 'civilization' or the AviaNest since he had not met anything like them up north ravaged by nuclear disasters and undead abominations.
The truth was... Zed doubted it considering the things he saw up north.
Though he was in possession of a supernatural ability of impressive life force that granted him a long lifespan and vigorous healing factor, he was as much as vulnerable to being hurt as other beasts. Yes, he had run-ins with the undead and even killed a few, but the rest of the living would gain nothing from confronting those abominations.
Zed was reminded by the few highly mutated undead that he had a run-in.
It was an unpleasant memory.
For days, Zed had let the ocean waves carry the yacht. From time to time, he used the radio to try to communicate with someone, just someone... He had enough battery that he carried over the yacht plus some more. It sucked for him that he could not eat, but he would not die no matter how long given the special power he possessed.
The downside to not eating though is that he would have to suffer from starvation. It was a kind of hurt that was natural to come to any living lifeform if they went hungry,e except in Zed's case, he would not die from starvation.
Inside the cat's stomach... what was actually happening was that his intestines were being digested to sustain its host, while simultaneously regenerating them. From a scientific perspective, it made reason as to why he would suffer hurt if he didn't eat anything despite his supernatural life force. Zed would not know anything of this, however, as after all, he was just a cat.
Zed waited for the radio comms while he idled the days away by perusing the few items he found in the yacht from magazines, a few books, and as such. If it came to worse, he would need just swim the ocean until he found land. Another boon of his supernatural ability was that he would never tire.
Even so, he would not want to swim in the ocean. He was reminded of an old memory of when he traveled north, and by his sheer will alone, crossed, the icy sea from the Phillippines to Japan to Taiwan to China... It was a hellish journey, one of the few that almost killed his motivation.
What were the reasons why Zed had taken this journey?
It would be a very long spiel. But to surmise, he wanted to prove a point. It was his love for his special person that motivated him. When he had almost given up, he was informed he had not searched enough and there was more land to cover. Moreover, there was that journal. Learning of the possibility that all of humanity might have gone extinct, he had rediscovered his resolve to try again.
He wanted to be sure... or maybe he was just indignant of the cruel truth.
In an attempt to continue his travels, he went south where presumably former Indonesia existed... The dolphin had informed him of active sapient activity in such places as Indonesia and America. Where in America, Zed would not exactly where. His map seemed to tell him America was quite a big place. This was one of the reasons why he chose to go to Indonesia first to investigate.
If there was sapient activity, it meant structure. just like the humans once had. And structure meant organization. And organization meant the power of the collective. Zed could not put his paw at it well, but he thought he understood. If he was to investigate something, he would have to start doing it smarter. He was reminded of his lonely days up north.
Maybe Zed could try forming a group of his own. he was reminded of the herd of undead or the herd of the weird-looking deers he met in China.
Bzzt... zzt...
Zed's ears perked up. He walked to the radio coms and tried to talk to it. "Hello? Anyone there?" His vocals were terrible as he was new to this. "Hello?" He repeated. Finally, the connection seemed to stabilize as a voice was heard from the other end.
"Hi!" Replied a high-pitched sweet voice. "You speak the old tongue? Was it English?"
"Yes," Zed enthusiastically admitted. "I knew Japanese and Korean too."
"Let's speak Korean, I know it better than English."
Zed changed his method of speaking, trying to recall the words, and while he might be capable of the language, he lacked the skill to execute it so he responded rather sloppily. "Y-yeah. I think I should be able to manage." He said in poor Korean.
"You were gargling. Anyways, you had a thick cat accent on you? What tribe did you belong to? Maybe you joined a Pride? What was the problem for you to leave your radio on open comms? It got me curious. Need any help?" The voice from the radio replied rather eloquently, the voice.
"No. I was not part of any community. I was a lone cat on some island in the Pacific. I was currently stranded on my yacht hoping for it to reach shore." Zed switched to English finding it easier to talk in this language perhaps a result of his practice of reading Dr. Janus Vein's journal.
"You would not mind me speaking in Korean, wouldn't you? You seemed to understand enough. Anyway, I was surprised you weren't dead from starvation yet. Wait a minute, someone was calling to me..." The sound of rustling echoed from the other end, familiar tuning of pages, Zed reckoned.
After some time, the voice returned. "Sorry about that, the boss called me. My name is Chip, by the way, I am a parrot. I was fairly capable of speaking so I was in charge of communications... especially communicating with survivors like you."
The mention of 'Parrot' clued Zed in on who Chip actually was or whom was he affiliated with.
"Were you a member of AviaNest?" Zed asked.
"Oh?" The parrot from the other end seemed surprised. "It looked like the fame of our organization had been spreading fast."
"I heard it from a dolphin, he sold me some convenient knowledge," I confessed to my meeting with the dolphin.
"Convenient? Heh! Knowledge was power! You were lucky to meet a Champion like A-Dolph. The ability to read was a far sharper weapon than one might imagine." Chip boasted and continued on with his remarks. "Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I was tasked with communicating with survivors via the comms like this. We have settled into a fairly nice community here. It was the first! I was telling you! The Southerners seemed to follow our example and were trying to build their own place. The Westerners meanwhile were embroiled in war, they were idiots I tell you! And the North... The North was in a state of hellish decrepit landscape. A few folks further south seemed to be doing better as sapient activity had budded and were trying to form their own communities. Depending on where were you, I could connect you to a gathering point for survivors. They'd love the extra paws."
This was an opportunity, a downfall he did not expect.
"Could I come to your place instead?"
"..."
The voice from the radio comm went quiet finding Zed's question rather negatively. Zed didn't know how to remedy it. He realized he might have committed a faux pass. "Sorry. Was there any reason why I could not come? I'd be frank. I wanted to consult the Owlking about something."
"Sorry, but I could not decide this... I had to consult my superior..." The parrot, Chip, replied with obvious wariness.