XG 67 - Aren’t we thieves now?

“There’s one at two o’clock,” L.L. reported and everyone’s eyes went in that direction and gripped their weapon in ready.

“Ignore it,” Kang Xunsu said. “We will only start hunting once we are prepared with L.L. on the watch out.”

The lone zombie might be tempting to kill, but who knows how many were out of sight but were actually close by? Their first hunt should be in a safer environment.

They reached the small town without killing any zombies along the way. The sight that entered Wong Xue Guo’s eyes was so similar to the apocalypse movie scene of an abandoned town that she shivered uncomfortably.

“Right, let’s go to the supermarket first. Supplies gathering is our first priority,” Kang Xunsu announced.

No one in the right mind would argue with that.

The supermarket from Kang Xunsu’s mouth was actually a one-floor mini-market where three shop lots were combined into one. Inside was a mess, with the display shelves were mostly swept clean. From outside, they could see that the food section was nearly empty, while the household was only half taken away.

With binoculars, Kang Xunsu looked around from the shotgun seat. “No one will be going around alone. Go by doubles. Ash, you are with me. L.L, you take Sung-Ho. Yibo, the little princess is in your hands.”

“Thanks, I feel protected,” Ash sighed gratefully. Among their group, Kang Xunsu’s muscles and tough-looking face would have anyone immediately believe he was the strongest if one only judged by looks alone.

But of course, Kang Xunsu was dependable under his tough facade too.

Armed with her sword and surgical mask, Wong Xue Guo and the others got out of the car, their eyes looking around for any dangers. Chen Yibo had also worn a surgical mask like her and they were both safe from the smell lingering around the place. The mask could not block most of the bloody, decaying smell, but at least they would not be forced to puke like Ash does.

Even the green-faced Kim Sung-Ho eyed their surgical masks longingly. In the end, two masked people become four. Kang Xunsu and L.L. refused the masks and fought to get used to the smell.

While it was good that they did not encounter zombies, Wong Xue Guo still has to ponder where they were. Did they leave for a greener place or something?

Kang Xunsu will take the front, and as his partner, Ash had to follow his back. L.L. will secure their rear, with Kim Sung-Ho before him, leaving the rest in the middle. The door to the mini-market was already wide open, so they just needed to step in without trouble.

“Someone is behind the cashier!” Ash whispered to Kang Xunsu urgently. He would have grabbed Kang Xunsu’s sleeve and swung hard if they were not holding onto their weapons.

“I can see that.” Kang Xunsu raised an eyebrow at how funny the zombie was.

From the clothing and hair, he could guess it was a female. She was tied onto the chair, unable to leave easily as the chair does not have the roller. The female zombie literally has shed most of her flesh, with only flabby skin covering her skeleton and it looked beyond creepy. She was not moving, her head drooping downwards and none of them knew if it was still alive or not.

They did not spot any other zombie in the shop other than the one behind the cashier.

“Its heart is still beating,” Kang Xunsu warned.

“A trap?” Ash whispered.

“Too sloppy to be a trap.”

“A bait?”

“None of us eat zombies.”

“Leave it alone then,” Wong Xue Guo advised. “Unless you think it’s a good idea to shoot it and alert everyone of our position.”

“L.L. and Sung-Ho, keep an eye on the exit. I will keep an eye on this funny zombie while the others grab as much food as you can,” Kang Xunsu issued their tasks.

First, they looked around the cabinets and grabbed whatever edible food they could find, stuffing them into the bags they prepared. There was not much edible food left, and those people that had come here early had swept off all the dry food.

Ash eyed the row of cat and dog food. “How about pet food? I heard some people do eat them and find them delicious.”

“I won’t advise that unless we really have no other food to eat,” Chen Yibo said. Ash took it as an agreement and grabbed the remaining six bags of it with a silly grin on his face.

With the food section done, they went to the household section. Chen Yibo manages to find some battery and a working torchlight while Ash searches for a clean blanket way underneath the stack of it. While the laboratory did provide everyone with a blanket, it was not enough for Ash that was not used to living in a winter climate.

He always woke up feeling he was a block of ice.

Wong Xue Guo was reluctant to grab clothes that were filled with a layer of dust and unmentionable gooey things, but she has no hesitation to touch the dust to restock her female needs.

Eying Chen Yibo who was also grabbing supplies, she teased him. “How do you feel when you take things without paying? Aren’t we thieves now?”

Chen Yibo just smiled at her obvious taunting. “The law only applies if civilization still exists.”

“What does your morality say?”

“The goods here will be a waste if not used by those in need.”

“Hey… I found some doors here.” Ash whispered, urging them to come over to look behind a wall, which was a corridor hiding three rooms from view. “There might still be some food inside!”

“Wait!” Wong Xue Guo quickly called out to stop him, but fortunately, Chen Yibo managed to grab Ash’s wrist, stopping him before he opened one of the doors.

Ash paused. “What is it?”

“Eight out of ten movies I’ve watched always have people locking infected people inside a room.”

Ash immediately retracts his hand. “Let’s call the big guy Xunsu.”

When Kang Xunsu arrived, he nodded in approval of their cautiousness. “Open the door.”

Wong Xue Guo took a step back. “He says it so let us be gracious and allow him to do it.”

Giving the little princess a stinky gaze for that idea, Kang Xunsu slowly turned the doorknob, with his other hand already holding his gun in an aiming position.

The door was not locked, and just from that tiny millimeter gap, they could see the room was dark with stagnant air filled with a musky scent. The trio behind him held their breaths as they peered into the room from behind Kang Xunsu, who then decided to push open the door wider.

“Do you need a torchlight?” Ash suddenly asked from the back.

“Something is inside!” Chen Yibo warned when he spotted something moving inside the room.

“Move back!” Kang Xunsu backed up as he shot at the black humanoid figure stretching out of the room, reaching for them with its long fingers.

Bullets entered into the tall figure’s chest, but it was still moving. The appearance of that thing was then completely revealed to them after it had gotten out of the darkroom. The sight of it nearly sent Wong Xue Guo into a heart attack.

“What the fucking hell is that!” Ash yelled in fear. He had run far away but there was nothing in the small corridor that he could hide behind.

“Obviously not a zombie!” Wong Xue Guo pulled out her sword and stabbed it. Her eyes widened when there was no feeling of resistance as if her sword just passed nothing but air.

“Xue Guo, move!” Chen Yibo yelled and she quickly regained her senses and jumped away from the hands that were about to reach her.

Kang Xunsu shoots the black figure to attract it away from her, but once again, the bullets were absorbed into the black figure, without any signs of damage or pain from it. With the bullets useless, Kang Xunsu could only stay on defense.

“A new monster?” Kang Xunsu asked warily.

After the initial fright, they realized this black humanoid figure had a strange texture, resembling a crayon drawing. It has two white scribbles in circles acting as its eyes and a long arch as its mouth, looking horrifying and weird at the same time. This crayon-ish-looking monster was actually moving rather slowly and awkwardly, resembling the traditional slow-moving zombies from the movies.

“Should it not be?” Wong Xue Guo had not heard anything other than ‘failure’ or ‘awakened’ people being their humanity’s enemy. Or her mother had not encountered this type of monster yet?

No, it’s impossible.

If this type of monster had already appeared in the first year of the apocalypse, it would not make sense that her mother does not know about it. It was also her oversight for not asking whether there were any different types of monsters other than zombies.

“Is this an ability of an awakened person?” Chen Yibo guessed. “Ash, can you pass me the torchlight we found earlier?”

“There’s another one!” Kang Xunsu warned when a second crayon-looking figure emerged from the darkroom. The ‘creator’ really has no sense of art. How could they draw one eye big and another small, with uneven height as well?

“We can’t hit them!” Wong Xue Guo complained as she continued dodging, every one of her attacks was useless. It was good that their movement was slow, but it was useless if they could not attack them.

They could not just dodge forever!

“Shit, there’s another one! It’s a dog!” Ash was surprisingly able to figure out the third black figure with four uneven ‘legs’ crawling towards them in difficulty.

Wong Xue Guo had a small sense of pity for the ‘dog’.

“Got the torchlight yet?” Kang Xunsu called out.

“Got it! Got it!” Ash quickly passed the torchlight he had shoved quite deep in his backpack to Chen Yibo and then hurriedly stayed far away.

With Kang Xunsu and Wong Xue Guo working to distract the three crayon-ish figures, Chen Yibo shone the flashlight into the room.

The light stopped its search when it caught onto a small, hunched human figure with streaks of white hair. The figure moved, trying to block the light, just as the three crayon-ish figures moved towards the light, blocking it from the figure.

“That’s the controller!” Wong Xue Guo announced, thrilled that they had finally found a clue to end the chasing game.