With a dagger in each hand Jade easily kills a group of zombies nearby. Taking a quick look at the others she's relieved to see them all fine.
Suddenly a zombie leaps towards her and Alex appears beside her easily digging a knife into the creatures head.
Jade gives him a greatful nod. Though she knew she could have gotten it, having someone protect her felt nice.
Refocusing on the fight in front of her Jade sheathed her knives and channeled her power into her hands. Jades nails swiftly extend to a point and harden.
Using the claws made with her ability Jade leaps towards the nearest zombie, tearing it's head from it's body effortlessly.
Over the course of 3 hours the group fought their way forward. Jade was beginning to get tired. Her body wasn't nearly as strong as it was before her death and wasn't accustomed to fighting for long periods of time.
She tried not to show her exhaustion but Alex noticed her light panting when they stopped for a moment to recover their energy.
Eli and Max were keeping watch as they hadn't used as much energy on the way.
"Are you still good to keep going?" Alex asks Jade quietly. The two were sitting side by side at the moment and everyone else was chatting so no one else heard him.
"I'll be fine in a minute. Just needed some time to breathe." Jade says with a small reassuring smile.
"Alright. Just be sure to speak up if you need another break." He responds gently rubbing the top of her head subconsciously.
Jade looks at him questioningly with a raised eyebrow.
"What are you doing?" She asks curiously.
"Sorry." He mutters seemingly only now realizing what he was doing.
"It's fine." Jade replys moving her gaze from his face to the group, talking not far from them.
Leo turns to look at them and his face lights up before hurridly running over.
"Jade!" He says with a bright smile.
"Leo." She responds with much less enthusiasm.
"Do you have a map?" He asks ploping down on the ground in front of her.
"Yeah, why?" She asks pulling a map from her space. It had been in her room at the hideout as she had used it to make countless route plans for missions given to the Snow Knights. She actually had several in her space as they had a few in the hideout. It makes sense that they would as she would occasionally draw or write on them while planning.
"Can you show me where we're going?" Leonard asks as he watches Jade spread the map on the ground between them.
"No problem. This is where we're at and this is our destination. My people are probably around here by now given the time they left. That is assuming Dylan planned the path how I think he did." She starts, pointing to an alley first. Then a place outside the city and finally a building pretty far from their position.
"Thanks! That helps a lot." Leo says with a smile. He rubs her head breifly before turning to leave.
"Wait." Jade says, stopping him in his tracks. He turns to look at her questioningly but then she hands him the map after circling the area with the base using a permanent marker.
"You can have this one." Jade says handing him the map.
"You sure?" He asks in surprise, looking at the folded map in his hand.
"Yeah, I have more." She replys as she leans back against the wall with closed eyes.
She really needed the rest even if it was only for a few minutes.
"We should get going! There's a large group headed this way." Ian says walking over to inform the rest of the group.
Jade swiftly gets to her feet followed by Alex, next to her.
The group quietly slips out of the alley and easily avoids running into the mentioned group. Although they do encounter some zombies in their path.
Following the route Jade planned they make good progress without running into too many infected.
By the time the sun begins to set the group notices a bank nearby. There shouldn't be many zombies inside as banks usually don't have that many customers at a time. There may even be survivors inside.
This one in particular is a very large bank. There are 3 floors with a lot of space.
"Let's sleep there tonight." Nova suggests as they make their way over.
Reaching the door they push it open with a little effort and upon entering they find out why it was difficult. Someone piled heavy boxes on the other side. Probably in an attempt to prevent someone from getting inside.
This means there were people hiding there. The question is. Are they still inside? If so are they even still alive? There couldn't be a lot of food in the bank. Just water and snacks along with the employees lunch for any who brought one. Most people would eat takeout during their break. Especially working in this area. There are a few restaurants nearby. Two of them are even in walking distance.
Everyone is quiet as they enter the lobby. Jade is the closest to the door once they've all entered and she silently closes the door before locking it from the inside.
Whoever it was that was trying to keep people or zombies out was dumb. They hadn't locked the door and instead chose the hard way of stacking boxes?
Maybe they were just trying to keep zombies out and humans could come in. In that case they're even more stupid. Bad situations bring out peoples true character and most people wouldn't hesitate to rob or even kill others for supplies.
There were even canibals that emerged a year after the disaster in her last life.
At least zombies don't hide their intentions.
Looking around Jade noticed an empty chip bag on one of the chairs and a few empty water bottles on the reception desk. Otherwise the room was completely empty.
She silently moved around the room observing every detail. She couldn't see anyone there and her instincts told her there was no one on this floor.
Looking back at the group she gave them an okay sign and began moving towards the stairs gesturing to stay put.
Alex shook his head and silently moved to stand beside her as if to say he would go with her.
After thinking for a moment Jade nodded in agreement and motioned to the others to stay put.
Jade began to slowly make her way upstairs followed by Alex who was only a few steps behind.
Entering the second floor lounge Jade felt three pairs of eyes observing her despite not seeing anyone.
She held a hand behind her back and held up three finges to indicate three people were here.
Seeing this Alex became more alert but the pair chose to act as though they didn't know they were being watched. Jade slowly walked around the room while keeping an eye out for the three strangers.
After a minute she noticed a shoe poking out from behind the counter through the corner of her eye.
Subtlety motioning to the hiding place she acted as though she didn't see the person. Alex got the message and moved his body to a position that made it hard for anyone to attack from that direction.
Moving slowly in the direction of the person while pretending to be looking around Jade got close enough to hear the person's breathing and realized there were two people there and they were afraid.
Realizing this Jade felt that these two likely weren't great in combat and concluded they weren't a threat to her or Alex.
She couldn't say the same for the third person as she had yet to find them but when she saw Alex subtly motion to a closed cabinet she suddenly moved.
Swiftly reaching around the counter she accurately grabbed the arm of one of the two people and yanked them out of hiding.
"Everyone out." She said calmly as she held a knife to the throat of the person in her arms.
It was a teenage boy. She could feel him trembling in her arms as she held him and she could see tears welling up in his eyes.
No one moved from their spots and Jade moved her knife to touch the boys neck, drawing blood.
"Wait! Don't hurt him! Please, don't hurt him." Another boy pleded
as he stepped out from behind the counter. He was crying and trembling as he looked at Jade who was holding his friend at knife-point.
"I know you aren't the only ones." Jade says and the boy in her arms stretched out his hand to point at the cabinet shakily.
"Th-there! Someone is hiding there!" He stuttered and Alex moved to grab the person easily. They had already known someone was there anyway. Jade just wanted to see if the boys would lie to her.
"Anyone else?" Alex asks. His deep voice making the three people tremble more than seeing Jade with a knife.
"Up- upstairs." The girl Alex is holding says shakily. She was afraid for her life and had no intention of lying in this situation.
"These two have no weapons on them as far as I can tell. If they had any I doubt they would be with that girl." Jade says releasing the boy in her arms. She didn't say that because of the girls gender or strength but because she felt that no one in their right mind would leave a weapon in the hands of someone so cowardly. The girl was on the verge of pissing herself out of fear just from hearing Alex's voice and seeing a knife on the other side of the room.
Alex agreed with Jade and shoved the girl forward before wiping his hands in disgust. He didn't like touching people. He felt disgusted by the thought. He could tolerate if it was Leo as they were brothers but a stranger made him want to puke. Jade was different though. He wanted to hold her in his arms and kiss her. He felt the urge to merge their bodies into one.
He couldn't quite figure out what was so special about the younger 'boy' but he knew he wanted her.