Chapter 26 - Cozy Cave
The trio had left the bleeding monster pig far from the small forest for safety reasons. Most corrupted creatures shy away from the animal nature; they are beyond hunting instincts since their minds have become increasingly monstrous.
"I-I'm going to take a bath!" Anna announced.
"Take your canteen, okay? The water from the small pond isn't very good," Alice advised.
"S-sure. You can bring it," Anna replied.
Luke agreed, though he was slightly puzzled.
Why are they telling me when they're going to take a bath? So many details...
"So, stay away. That's what I'm saying," Alice said.
Oh, I get it now. Wait, do they think I'm some kind of pervert? We're in a crazy situation... Who would do something like that? Not that I'd do it otherwise, but what kind of person do they think I am?
"Just to be clear, I have no interest in spying..." Luke said.
Wait! Should a man even say that? It might sound like I'm not interested in women.
"I mean, I wouldn't... be that kind of guy."
"O-okay," Anna agreed.
Luke understood and moved away, handing the canteen to the girls so they could use clean water and made his way out of the forest.
At lunchtime, Alice took on the task of roasting the meat over the fire.
"My hair looks awful without shampoo," Anna complained, envying her friend's blonde hair.
For a moment, Luke looked at Anna's red hair.
What's she talking about? Her hair is beautiful.
"I don't think so," he said, grabbing a piece of meat.
"T-thank you."
They were eating the wolf meat; there was still plenty, and they would leave the pig for later.
"I wish I could have a hamburger. This meat would be great in one. What about you?" Anna asked.
Alice tried to speak but realized her mouth was full and turned away in embarrassment.
"Hamburger? Hmm... a hamburger would be good, but I really miss instant noodles. I'd give anything to eat some," Luke said.
"They're good. I always ate them when I was too lazy to cook at home," Anna said.
Luke was surprised.
"So, you cook? I didn't think you did."
She burned the meat a bit, but I won't judge. I can't cook properly over a campfire either.
"Of course! I learned to cook early on. My mom said it was the secret to winning over my dad. Cooking is a woman's secret weapon to win a man."
Alice started coughing uncontrollably at Anna's comment, her face turning red.
"Just to be clear, I offered to cook because I wanted to... just help the group!" Alice said, blushing.
Okay, now I understand the confusion, and I'm embarrassed.
After that awkward moment, the three were too embarrassed to start a new topic.
"S-sorry for what I said," Anna started to laugh.
Even Luke chuckled.
They rested after lunch, and then the girls began practicing. Anna shot arrows at trees, and Luke noticed that some shots did more damage, indicating she was learning to emit prana into her arrows.
Alice stood still as if conversing with her sword, her eyes closed for a while, murmuring some things. Then she began practicing movements.
Luke watched the girl for a moment, noticing how skilled she was. When she realized he was spying, he felt a bit embarrassed and tried to play it off.
I had to do exactly that right after the awkward lunch situation! My habit of evaluating people...
To avoid seeming idle, he went to a corner of the forest, but he didn't feel comfortable practicing with a hammer.
"What am I going to do with this thing? I only use it out of necessity; a sword would be ideal."
He practiced some moves while simultaneously thinking about the schedule they would have to follow.
According to Alice, the Veil was a place where corruption had gone beyond and shaped the region, creating the Veil. After all, what is corruption? It makes the creatures of this world even more monstrous... but that pig still seemed a bit normal to me. Unlike that Wendigo or the Wolves... are there levels of corruption? Before this world fell to it, what were these creatures like?
Luke had many questions to ask but didn't want to bother them.
Be good to those who are good, be bad to those who are bad... that's my motto. That doesn't mean I'll go around trusting them, especially when going to a place where I can be killed by threats much worse than that Wendigo. I need to know everything! I need to extract all the information I can... I will never trust anyone, except that person.
A rustling of leaves was heard, and he prepared to attack whatever emerged with his hammer.
A monster? Something is coming! I'll kill it before it has a chance to react.
With his hammer in hand, he raised it to strike as soon as he saw the monster.
"Eep!" Anna was startled.
"Sorry!" Luke dropped the hammer to the ground.
The girl had her hand on her chest, breathing deeply.
Who almost died of fright was me; she's crazy to come like this.
"You disappeared," she said.
Got it... my mistake, I went to train far from them.
"Sorry..." he scratched his head, embarrassed.
Alice appeared shortly after with her sword in hand and then left when she saw everything was okay.
"I guess there are no hamburgers around here," she joked amidst the silence.
"Definitely not, I'll go back."
The two walked together, returning toward the cave. Luke could see they were a bit relieved not to have to return to the Veil so soon. The goal was to wait until more people emerged in search parties or found more survivors to go together to the sewers. They mentioned that if a monster appeared in the Veil, they would have to stay hidden no matter how long it took. Anna recounted that once a monster slept near where she was, and she stayed hidden for an entire 'day' waiting for it to leave. Inside that place, there was no night, so the girls knew a day had passed when their internal sleep clock started giving signs of wanting to sleep.
They explained that they learned this at the Academy of Earth, where they teach some survival methods, one of which is trying to learn to count the days according to the sleep cycle.
Honestly, I didn't sleep well in that asylum... so counting on my biological clock wasn't something I could do. Luckily, this place we're in has sunlight, so if the day passes, I'll know. But inside that Veil... what will it be like?
Alice was starting to light the fire again; she borrowed Luke's torch. It was much faster to light the fire with it. Putting the meat on the spit, she let it roast and went back to working on the remaining wolf pelts, cutting them into blanket shapes, and Luke even saw her working on some stones.
She's good at handling pelts.
"It's for the cold; it's gotten worse at night, and we even need a blanket for whoever is on watch duty," she said, noticing Luke was watching.
"You're well-prepared."
"It'll be useful here and if we need to move to another location," she said while washing the inner parts of the hide with her canteen. Luke could refill the water later using his own canteen.
"I'm also going to improvise a... a larger bag."
She knows how to make a bag?
Sensing the silence, he wanted to clear up a doubt.
"And if at some point we have to go to the sewers alone, can we get there faster with the route you planned? Not that I want to rush towards that place, the plan to wait for the soldiers to clear the sewers of threats while we wait to find another search team is the best option," Luke said.
Why should I face death in the sewers? Better let those guys figure out what's down there.
"Faster? Hard to say as many factors can come into play. The path I've planned involves skirting around the Veil from the outside, here, going around that small stone wall that surrounds the city. Doing this, we avoid a lot of dangerous territory, although there are still dangers outside. This way, we'll have covered much of the distance and then enter the Veil, heading towards the silo, but this is a last resort. Staying put near our 'accident' site is the standard survival protocol from the academy manual."
Luke nodded at her reasoning.
Makes sense.
"Are you already preparing dinner?" Anna asked, appearing.
"I'll get the meat ready for dinner. We can eat it cold or warm it up slightly with Luke's torch; we just need to hide under one of these hide blankets to do it," Alice said.
She is really prepared... must have had training for sure.
When it was time to sleep, Luke's small cave was now cozier with the hides spread on the ground and something to cover themselves with.
"I'll take the first watch," Alice said.