*Flashback*
"H-huh?" Alice was baffled by what she just heard.
"Could I know where they are, as well?"
"T-they're in the cafeteria, b-but why do you want to meet someone like that?"
She then looked towards Everette, who was just shaking his head with a casual expression.
"I recommend not wasting your breath in trying to change her mind; she's super stubborn." Subsequently, after saying that, Ada dragged him by the scruff of his neck towards the exit. "H-hey!"
"Because why not? I wanna see what he's really like for myself rather than through words." Ada waved her hand dismissively. She then signalled to Amelia and Jack to come with her. In response, they just shrugged at one another before following.
Alice sighed and stared at their leaving figure before muttering:
"Be safe."
Just as they were about to leave through the door, Ada stopped in her tracks before looking back with a shameless look. "Where is the cafeteria?"
*End of Flashback*
The group walked down an empty yet messy corridor. Several broken chairs and other objects were strewn across the corridor. At the front of them was their guide - it being Lilly.
She had a very nervous expression before feeling a hand land on her shoulder. "AH—!" Ada, who was just behind her, immediately pulled back her hand with a raised brow.
"Geez... Sorry?"
Lilly took several deep breaths before turning towards her and apologising, "S-sorry... I still have nightmares about the corridors." Ada nodded in understanding, "I understand."
'I really don't.' Since the start of the apocalypse, except when she faced the mutated human, she hasn't encountered any other situation that may lead her to be afraid.
After a short while of navigating the maze of scattered items along the floor, they finally made it to the cafeteria. The entrance to it was two dark wooden doors that seemed to have several scratch marks etched into them.
Lilly slowly walked up to it before knocking on it. Several moments passed before a rectangular hole appeared on the door. It seemed the person on the other side slid something on the other side of the door.
A narrowing eye appeared through the hole before widening in surprise. The hole in the door closed before several sounds of locks unlocking resounded from the other side of the door.
"Lilly!" When the door unlocked, a guy with black hair and brown eyes dived towards her with outstretched arms. "EEP!" Lilly quickly stepped back, leading the guy to faceplant into the ground.
A subtle thump followed. He sat up while nursing his nose, "Ow...! My nose."
Lilly's eyes landed on him before calming down, "O-oh... It's just you, Owen." He groaned at her, "Couldn't you at least make an attempt to catch me?" He slowly got up.
Lilly smiled wryly, "You didn't give me any warning, dude." Owen then noticed the new faces behind her. "Oh? I don't recognise you guys." Lilly perked up and began to introduce the four.
"This is Ada, Everette, Amelia, and Jack. They came from outside of Trinity—"
"Seriously!?" Before Lilly could finish, Owen passed her and grabbed onto Everette's hand with both of his. He stared at him respectfully and admiringly, "Good sir, are you here to save us?!" Owen assumed he was the one making the decisions for some reason.
"W-well..." His eyes slowly moved towards Ada, who seemed to be casually staring at him with an amused look. Ada knew he wasn't attracted to the same sex, so she was okay with it, but it didn't mean she wasn't just a tiny bit jealous.
Owen was staring at him intently with an expectant look in his eyes, "Well? Are you?" Everette gulped, "Well... Ada is the one in charge, you see..."
Owen's eyes then detached from him before landing on Ada's figure; he got off Everette to do the same thing to her before being stopped by her hand. "We will. We just want to meet this Coll guy first."
His eyes brightened before dimming. He laughed anxiously before letting them in.
The dining hall was big enough to fit a hundred people at minimum. The group skimmed around the hall and counted the number of people. It took a while, but they came to a total of 152. On each side were tables stacked high on top of each other.
Everette whistled, impressed at such a feat.
Ada continued looking around to see if anyone matched the description of someone "strong" but couldn't find any. She looked towards Owen before asking him where Coll was.
"O-oh... He's currently out hunting." She nodded before following it up with another question. "Could you tell me why only he goes out to hunt?"
He nodded with a sigh, "In his words, he said that it was to ensure that we reduce the number of possible casualties as possible..." His hand then tightly formed a fist. "Although it worked at the beginning, we slowly found that it's so that only he can get stronger while we stay weak and more susceptible to his rule."
"Because of this... We lost many to those Infected when they breached our defences."
Silence permeated between them before Ada broke it, "Could you tell us anything about him?"
"What do you know already about him?"
"We know that he wields a longsword made out of a mutated bone."
Owen nodded when he heard that, "That's true. But now he has a new one." He described its features, "His weapon is more like a greatsword; the blade is a mandible from a beetle he encountered. It's about 2 to maybe 3 meters long. Its handle is also just the bottom of the mandible carved to look like one."
Everette raised a brow at the mandible part, "Did he kill it?" Owen shook his head, "No, by breaking off its mandible, he stunned it long enough for his party to grab it and retreat."
"But he bragged about his victory almost like he did."
"How do you know he didn't kill it?" Everette asked with a confused look. Owen shrugged, "One of his party members, of course. Even though it consists of his close friends, even they know when to be truthful."
Everette nodded, "How long do you think he'll be gone for?" Owen sighed, "Probably for an hour."
SCREECH
After saying that, a long screech resounded behind them. Looking back, they saw Ada dragging a chair behind her before plopping herself down on it. She crossed her legs and leaned his cheek into her fist.
"We'll wait for him to come then."