Ray and Yuki were running through a road. The road was overgrown with grass and small plants. There were many cars stopped throughout the road. The buildings on both sides were broken too. Many of them were missing their top sides and walls. It had been almost a week since they had escaped from Delhi. Ray had a big backpack and a jacket over the hospital dress, which he was wearing when he escaped.
Ray and Yuki stopped running. They were panting. They walk to the side and sit down. The sun was blazing on them. Both of them were panting.
Ray started looking around to figure out where they were. They were moving towards the west to avoid going through the Himalayas. So, he wasn't that surprised when he saw the Kabul International Airport sign a little distance away.
He said to Yuki, "Looks like we're travelling fast."
Yuki says in a smug tone, "Of course you are. I'm the best runner spirit anyone could ever ask for."
Sohel shrugged, "Yeah, yeah, ms. Swift. I'm starving. Let's search for some food."
"Yeah, let's do that. I want meat."
Sohel got up while saying, "We don't have the luxury of eating whatever we want. We gotta make do with what we find. Let's go."
Both of them walked to the airport and went inside. They silently walked through the terminal and reached the food court. But they had to stop abruptly and get into hiding as they saw a bunch of ant entomorphs had made a small nest in the food court.
Ray joked, "Looks like food isn't free even in an apocalypse."
Yuki said while turning into her tiger form, "Well, let's pay them and get our food then."
Sohel put his bag down and took out some kitchen knives. He tucked those knives one after the other in his belt.
He said, "I'm seeing eight outside. Might be more inside. On the count of three, we'll jump in."
Yuki Nodded.
"One"
"Two"
"Three"
Ray and Yuki got out of hiding and ran inside the food court. Yuki quickly got close to three ants before they could notice. She bites one's head off while slashing another with her claws. She spit the torn head of the first one towards the third one and slashed it down as it was busy with that head. Yuki ran towards the other two ants.
On the other hand, Ray ran towards three more. As he was running, he took out two knives and channelled spirit energy through them. He threw the knives at two ants with perfect accuracy, hitting them in the chest. He got close to the third one while channelling spirit energy through another knife. He ran from just beside the ant while slashing it just through the middle, cutting it into two pieces. The knife broke. Ray threw the empty knife handle and ran towards the other two ants. Ray and Yuki approached the last two from two sides.
Yuki tried to jump on the ant with bare claws, but the ant dodged just in time for her to miss. She quickly turned back and swinged her right hand. Only one sharp claw of hers was enough to decapitate the ant.
Ray came close and punched the ant. The punch made the ant take a step back. The ant swinged its arm to slap Ray, but Ray quickly dodged it and got on it's head. He took out another knife, channelled spirit energy through it, and stabbed it in the head. The ant screamed loudly as it fell to the ground.
Yuki came and stood next to Ray.
She said, "Looks like that's it. No other ant is coming out of the nest."
"Better safe than sorry."
Ray ran to his bag and came back with it. takes out a lighter and some rags from his bag. He tore a small chunk of the rag and lit it on fire. He threw the lit rug into the nest, and it soon got engulfed in fire.
Ray and Yuki watched the nest burn down to the ground in silence, waiting for any ants trying to surprise them. But no ants came.
Once the fire naturally went out, Ray put on his backpack again and said, "Come on, Yuki. I'm hungry."
Yuki ran behind him while yelling, "Master, wait."
They looked around different stalls for food. But unsurprisingly, most of the stalls were either empty or filled with spoilt food.
They were just about to give up when they entered another stall. They looked through the counter and shelves, but it was the same.
Ray was going to get out when Yuki called him. She pointed out a fridge to him. Ray wasn't much excited, but he opened the fridge door. To his surprise, he found some frozen food inside. But what was more surprising was that the electricity was still running in this part of the terminal.
Ray and Yuki both look at each other with smiles on their faces.
Ray quickly lights up a stove and starts frying some chicken nuggets. He didn't find any oil in the terminal, so he was using some he had from before.
He finished frying the nuggets and set up lunch for two.
Yuki got back to her cat form, and both of them started eating.
While eating, Yuki asked, "I know you said you wanted to go north, but why?"
Ray said, "Hmm. For now, let's just say, on a whim."
Yuki got irritated and said, "Huh? We're travelling through the world on a whim? Thats not really cool, is it?"
Ray asked, "You got a better option? I'll be more than happy to hear it."
Yuki was going to say something but stopped as she realised she actually doesn't have one. Ray noticed the silence and said, "Thought so. So, just come with me for now... I wonder if the shower system's still working. Let's take a breather here. Camp here for the night, scavenge what we can and plan where to head to from here."
"Ok. Sounds good to me."