Everyone had their eyes squinted when Alita mentioned the unknown woman's awakening.
James immediately asked black in his mind about any more people found around the shelter.
The shelter was not really huge enough to be spotted out easily. Most of the construction was underneath the ground. So, there was no probability of people discovering it and asking for help. The neighborhood had long been zombified and cleared out by him. There were no survivors.
It was safe to assume that the woman was not around from here.
Noticing her torn apart clothes that could break up into threads and show off the huge mountain peaks on her chest, he assumed that a bloody battle was faced by her alone.
She was an F-rank and there was no doubt of her being a genius to awaken at the early stage of apocalypse.
He was shocked to encounter an awakened in this situation. An F-rank hunter can easily handle a zombie of the same rank. However, there were very few cases in his past life where an F-rank could reach the death's door unless they were attacked by a group of the same rank.
His gears were already turning and there was only one thought that came up to him.
His thoughts were put at hold, and he distracted himself to assess the situation and make correct assumptions.
James asked Alita with a serious tone, "Can you specify the type of injuries she suffered?".
"There were burn marks on her skin, but her internals were not in a very good condition…." spoke Alita as she paused to whether continue her speech or not.
"Was the internal bleeding too much?" asked James while guessing.
"No… The internal organs had signs of being severely burned, but…they were healing at a remarkable pace, so I assumed that she might be an awakened." answered Alita confidently. "I think awakeners heal faster than normal humans." she continued with hands on her chin.
There was nothing wrong with Alita's theory because awakened people could surpass the basic threshold of what normal people couldn't even dream of.
"Aunty, can you help me dress her up. So that she won't feel uncomfortable after waking up." asked Alita to James' mother.
His mother nodded and they both went inside. James and his father were the only two left in the corridor.
"Do you want me to interrogate her?" asked his father with a profound look.
James refused his father and thought of her being treated the same way he was tied up when he had fainted on his door. He thought of recruiting her in his shelter team by after knowing her true character and motives.
With his past life experience, it would be no problem for him to determine a person's worth. There was no guarantee if she would join him after being interrogated by his father.
He didn't know if her awakened talent was of any help to his shelter, but what if it was a powerful one. With these thoughts, James stood there with his hand on the chin. He had decided to first understand how she ended up in this situation and ask about her previous whereabouts.
The gears in his minds were now rotating as if a huge machine was working nonstop.
…
Meanwhile, in a mall...
A man sitting at the corner of the room shivering with fear was fiddling with his satellite phone. The keypad was dyed red because of the blood on his hand. He was trying hard to turn it on with his numb, constantly shaking hands.
*Crunch* *Crunch*
"Aaah! Leave me, you bastard! Aaaaaaaah!"
Gunshots could be heard from outside the room. An Unknown beast screeched when the gun was fired. The man immediately locked the room door before the gunshots disappeared, and the man outside started screaming, "Aaaaaaah!"
He looked at the satellite phone and found out that it had a message. A helpless expression was all that he made, and sat in the corner, fearing that he might alarm the beast outside even if he cried.
*Crunch* *Crunch*
Hearing the beast's munching he covered up his ears and placed his head in between his legs sitting in the corner remaining motionless.
The satellite phone was lying on the floor with a message on its screen, "Your sacrifice will not be in vain for the military."
…
In James' shelter...
Seven hours had passed since the awakened woman was discovered by black. James went outside the house and called out black.
Black came out of the ground, and he immediately turned into the same humanoid wood form. James asked it if there was a possibility to shape-shift its humanoid form into a human looking body.
James explained to black that people would be scared to approach his shelter if they knew that a humanoid looking body lived around it. Furthermore, the construction of the shelter could be called out as black's awakened talent.
Black remained silent, and soon its body started perfecting into that of a male human. There were no eyes, nose, and mouth on his face.
For the blank emoji face, James covered his face with a demon mask. He could easily fool others with the reason that black suffered a scar on his face.
Both James and black entered the house and reached towards Alita's room. As soon as they reached the door, a shadow dashed out of it, pushing both of them away. The shadow was none other but the woman wearing tight clothes that made her 'mountain peaks' almost unable to breathe.
Black immediately took action and blocked the passage way with thick roots blocking her escape route. She immediately turned around and turned her eyesight towards both of them. She glared at both of them and clenched her fists hard.
The fists ignited with strong yellow flames, and she was already in front of James, with her punch almost making contact with his face. In a split second, the woman was sent flying to the wall of roots, causing her to cough out a mouth full of blood.
"Is she dead!?" exclaimed James, looking at black with a dumbfounded look.