Chapter 18: Zombie Gators
The group was now down another road with Gambit in the lead, Sky and Elsa also very close to him.
Unexpectedly Carl had chosen to stay closer to Eri than before, maybe this gave him a sense of security.
'Damn, now I can't access the system to see my rewards!' Eri grovelled in his mind looking for openings but anytime he would try to summon the system Carl's look would find his face.
If this how the journey would turn out to be, Eri would be needing a huge kidnappers bag to stuff Carl into.
At least they were quiet in their steps and only encountered a few mutants along the way which Gambit and Sky killed with ease.
Elsa would look back every now and then and recall; after they woke up and met in the fuel station the look he gave her, it made her blush for some reason.
While this happened Eri was in his own world thinking of his strength and his confidence in punching through a wall. He felt he could do it and wanted to.
"Now that the consistency of zombies and mutants have fallen a bit, can we hear a little about you Eri?" Gambit asked adjusting his glasses on his face a bit.
This was probably caused by the heroic deed for carrying Carl on his shoulders and reassuring all was ok. 'I guess this is how I gain their trust.'
"Well, uhm, what do I say?" Eri was not much of a people person and preferred to anticipate a conversation long before it started so he wouldn't sound stupid. "I am an Author, I guess."
"You write books like shakespeare?" Carl tugged on his wrist eyes filled with amazement.
"No! I mean..... Maybe, but I write Webnovels, fantasy books to ease up the stress of life I guess!" Eri hated where this conversation was going but soon found all but Sky incredulous at his status.
"Oh, so you earned online from writing!" Elsa carried a particular bliss asking this question.
"Not much.... There is a limit to what I can withdraw, never got to that..... The world ended before I could get to that limit so I basically did it for fun!" Eri grinned though his words held a lot of pain in them.
"I love reading books, and would love to pay for your work Eri, I will support you and become ya number one fan!" Carl spoke like the kid he was and that warmed Eri's heart.
"Too bad the internet is down then, if not I would have the best fan anyone could ever wish for!" Eri reassured fantasizing that dream a bit in his head.
"I would also read your book and would pay because you are a good person Eri!" Gambit patted him with his words.
Being the oldest, his wiseness was worth the respect.
'Come to think of it what does Gambit love doing?' a question that was worth asking.
"What about you Gambit?!" At the point of asking this question Eri noticed a slight chuckle from Gambit, he must have really predicted this one completely.
Gambit composed himself for some seconds before replying more audibly than Eri did, "I used to be a chef selling burritos and akara on the streets, I kinda had a dream to further study more english and spanish."
He laughed after this, who knew what was funy about it.
"In my bag I have a lot of textbooks I would love to get to, when we reach the safe zone that is." Gambit was more excited and tranquil for this part.
Eri smiled bitterly.
'I am busy rejoicing that there is no school anymore, and someone else wants to read comprehensive textbooks, ride on.'
"Hey guys look over there!" Sky called the attention of everyone to the large building in the distance with a blue roof.
It was a police station, and the same thought crossed their mind, surely there would be weapons and probably some rations left there.
Their excitement made them all break into a sprint at the building at full speed, but till they were cautious enough to look left to right not to get noticed.
At this point Eri was already fantasizing his dreams of touching a real gun and shooting. And that was when it happened.
The leading team stopped in their tracks urging every other person to also follow this movement.
The dreadful appearance on their faces linked to the torn apart gates of the police station.
The skinny gate had been broken in such a way that scared them all. This was a new sight of brutality to them.
"What the heck did this?" Elsa was the first to talk cautiously taking steps to reach the gates but felt Eri's hand restrain her and pull her closer.
"Everyone hide!" He commanded pulling Elsa and Carl to a corner of the wall quickly.
Gambit and Sky were slow to reply. Sky was particularly reluctant to listen but as Gambit moved to the order, he was forced to follow hiding by a pillar on the opposite side of the gates where Eri and the others hid.
For the next few seconds they all his with no reason as nothing showed to confirm Eri's allegations, however something eventually came.
Two large alligators, about twelve feet tall and extremely enormous, having a spike filled tail, two tusks by it's nose side, snarling and sniffing at the air with their aggressive bloodlust filled eyes scanning everywhere.
At the sight of this beasts they all hid more properly than before not to get noticed. They waited for a few minutes until the Mutant alligators went somewhere else in the station.
"Phew! That was close!" Elsa cried out resting her head on Eri's shoulder and into his warmth.
Eri waited much enough till the alligators were nowhere near them before letting out a sigh from his mouth. Thanks to his vampiric hearing he knew this beasts were coming and saved them from being ambushed.
But what was a station doing with Mutant alligators? Eri quickly caught sight of the aquarium signboard at the end of the street.
They had probably being infected, came out and knocked down the gates to eat a few survivors and now marked here as their turf, how unexpected.
'This is totally rotten luck!'