Chapter 107: West Road

The faint squeeze of leather drifted to my ears. My gaze was fixed on the road in front of me, a blur of passing signs and neglected buildings, while my knuckles were clenched tightly onto the steering wheel with a vice like grip.

The drive was silent. With the exception of the roaring wind flowing through the opened windows, and the steady rhythm of the dirt road, I could hear nothing but the endless drumming of my beating heart. There was a booming rain of napalm within my body. Loud and deafening, it echoed through every inch of my skin, and filled my ears with blood and empty deafness.

Even now, after we had driven away from the school, my heart refused to calm down. The image of the hobgoblin filled my head. The twisted smile that I saw through the rearview mirror was like a lingering specter, existing somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind.

I tried to ignore it. I forced myself to focus on the road ahead of me, but even as the car passed through houses and snaked its way around the web of backstreets and pathways that made up the neighborhood, my mind lingered to the scene from before. Occasionally, I would glance back at the rearview mirror, half certain that something was right behind us. I don’t know what I was expecting, a full horde or maybe a single grey skinned hobgoblin, but the tightness in my chest that I felt every time we turned a corner or passed by an alleyway was something I hated myself for feeling.

Eventually, with Cielle guiding the way from the passenger seat, we left the vicinity of the neighborhood and got onto the freeway. After a few minutes of driving, I eventually pulled over by the roadside.

I got off, and quickly surveyed my surroundings. There was nothing but acres of empty and uncultivated land on either side of the road. Weed, and several other invasive plant life had grown all over the land, forming a patchy garden of long grass and vine. As far as I could see, there was nothing but field. There were no animals, humans, or monsters, just a vast emptiness that encompassed the whole horizon.

Despite what should be a welcoming scene, I could not help but tighten my grip onto the sword that dangled by my side. After our close encounter, my senses were on high alert. A familiar tension grabbed hold of my body. It was the same constant feeling I had back in the dungeon, an illusion of danger, the impression of overlooking a cliff side, as if a knife was held against my throat.

I was quickly beginning to realize that the rules from the dungeon still applied to the outside world, death and danger were companions as close as the hairs on the back of my scalp, and letting my guard down for even a second meant embracing their chilly bodies in a massive bear hug.

After checking the surroundings one last time, I made my way over to the back of the Humvee.

“Hide!” someone called out when I reached the cargo area.

I looked up, and saw all three of them, Hina, Cher and the President, lined up in the back. Their faces were pale, and they lacked their usual vigor and energy. Hina’s hair was tousled and unkempt from the ride over here, Cher’s shoulders trembled beneath the stained white top she wore, while the President’s glasses were disarrayed and foggy.

“You guys okay?” My brow knitted as I asked. Although I did not see the hobgoblin attack directly, I still could not help but worry whether or not it did something to them. Boss class monsters were strong and full of surprises, who knows what that grey skinned hobgoblin was capable of.

Although they looked thoroughly spooked, they still retained their coherency. Their heads dipped down as they nodded in response.

“That thing was really scary,” Cher complained through shivering teeth. Her eyes were dark with stress, and her usual healthy pallor was replaced by a stark white complexion. “I almost pissed myself from the encounter.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time.” Cielle walked up from the other side of the Humvee as she off handedly commented. Looking up, I immediately noticed that her usual curtain of hair had been swept away from her face by the wind during the ride. It gave her an odd hairstyle, while simultaneously revealing her placid expression. Unfortunately, I could not enjoy the view for long, before Cielle shook her head, causing her night black hair to cascade downward, naturally falling back to its original position.

“Wasn’t there that one time with the cyclops?” She continued to comment and poke fun at Cher. “I remember afterwards, after the end of the day, you hid in another room and cleaned yourself up while complaining that you had no spare underwear left...”

“H-hey, that was so long ago, don’t bring it up now!” Cher’s quivering voice echoed out, a tinge of life seeping through her words, as she flashed Cielle a pleading look. Her eyes were swirling as she briefly glanced at me, before shifting her focus back to Cielle, and shouting out in a fit of desperation. “Don’t say anymore, please! At least not in front of Hide! I don’t want my stock to go down any further than it already has!”

Cher’s expression turned as red as an apple, the flush in her cheeks crawling all the way down to her neck, while her arms frantically waved around the air in front of Cielle, a weak attempt at silencing her. In response, Cielle moved swiftly out of the way, and came to a stop beside me. As Cher stomped at the ground with a teary eyed and wavering expression, Cielle took a step back and hid behind my back, a playful twinkle shined beneath the curtain of hair that covered her eyes.

I looked over at Cielle with a helpless sigh. She tilted her head up, and met my gaze with her own, her dark brown, almost entirely black irises visible through the parted sections of her hair. After a brief pause, she flashed a tight-lipped smile before turning away and continuing her exchange with Cher.

I watched from afar as Cielle continued to interact with Cher. Her current actions were a far cry from her usual self, and almost seemed deliberate, maybe even forced. She initiated conversation, and spoke with a tone much louder than the usual quite voice that I had grown accustomed to hearing. I briefly wondered why exactly she was doing this, before I suddenly noticed something that put a slight smile on my face. Cher’s unsteady trembling had disappeared.

Amidst Cher’s nervousness, I turned towards the others. Surprisingly, as they watched Cher’s flustered actions and almost incoherent ramblings, their earlier expressions lightened, as an unknowing smile leaked onto their faces. A part of me felt slightly bad for Cher, everyone was recovering from the earlier ordeal at her expense, but a greater part of me didn’t care. Seeing her red-faced and flustered embarrassment was several times better than the ashen pale expression she adorned earlier.

“How much stuff did we lose?” I shifted my gaze away from Cher, and turned towards Hina, continuing the earlier conversation. I recalled briefly that a few of our bags had been dislodged during our escape, so I worried about what we had lost. There were a few things mixed in the pile that we could afford to do without, while some were as valuable as life itself.

Hina, whose attention had been focused all on Cher and her sister’s exchange, jumped slightly in surprise at my sudden question. She turned towards me, and after a brief moment of recollection, she answered, “I think about half of the bags fell back there.” She paused, and thought for a second, before continuing, “We also lost a small chunk of the stuff we harvested from the manticore.”

“What about the bag full of system items?” I questioned. We didn’t have a lot, but the value of these things was beyond measure. Items like HP and mana potions, could save a person’s life during a critical moment of danger, and skill books added a lot in terms of increasing our current combat strength.

“No, we still have it.” Much to my relief, she responded positively as she pointed to a small rucksack near the corner of the bag. Her jubilant expression was no less than mine, and even the slight frown on her face that had formed after a moment of thought, could not hide the lingering reprieve in her eyes. “Although in retrospect, we should have probably put something like this inside the car, but thankfully, it didn’t fall with the other bags.”

“Yeah… I’ll find a better way of securing our stuff after we find a proper place to rest.” I stated with a firm nod, as I walked over towards the cargo area and peered inside. After a second of looking, a dejected sigh leaked out from my slightly parted lips.

“Even though we didn’t lose all of it, we still lost a lot.” Hina stated, as she walked up from behind me, and stared at the diminished pile of goods with similar gloom. The original mountain of duffel bags, and boxes from before had been cut by more than half. Going through a few of the bags, I noticed that most of the stuff that we lost was water and some food, with a few being clothing and other non-consumables. This realization brought a small amount of relief to my mind.

If it was water, then we could do without it for the time being. With Hina’s magic, producing drinkable water wasn’t a real issue, although if the group got separated, then that would be a completely different issue. Without Hina, surviving for more than two or three days would be a difficult thing to pull off. At most, a week without water was probably doable, considering the effects of increased stamina, but that sort of logic only applied to our physical combatants. Cielle, Narise, and the rest, they had the stamina and body constitution similar to their pre-apocalypse selves, I don’t know how long they’d be able to last without water.

In short, I wasn’t comfortable relying on one person for such an important necessity.

As for the food issue, we hadn’t lost a lot, so it wasn’t grounds for concern like how water was, but regardless, the sooner we can find more food, and for that matter, more water as well, the more my mind will be at ease.

Checking through the manticore loot, I noticed that about half of the collected scales were missing, but that was about it. The hide, core, and even the blood that I extracted and poured into milk jugs were still there. In fact, I was surprised to see that intermixed within the pile, there were also some Manticore teeth that I hadn’t noticed previously. I guess the others had extracted it without me realizing.

Overall, the loss wasn’t too bad, and most important of all, the Manticore loot was mostly intact. After our previous experience, I was quickly realizing that our most present concern wasn’t just finding food, and shelter, but rather increasing our overall strength. The Manticore loot will go a long way in increasing our fighting power once I figure out a way to create weapons and equipment out of them.

Breathing out a sigh of air, I then went and inspected how much damage the hobgoblin had done to the car. My heart fluttered nervously, as I gulped down a clump of frayed nerves. Truthfully speaking, I knew next to nothing about cars, and I doubt anybody else in the group did either. We were just high schoolers, and none of us posessesd the prior knowledge or interest in vehicles to assess any damages, or for that matter, repair it.

As I inwardly prayed that nothing important was damaged, I inspected the back bumper of the car. The metal was slightly crumpled, and after testing out the hatch, I discovered that the door on the back of the cargo had been damaged, and wouldn’t open any longer. While this would prove inconvenient when unloading our supplies, in terms of functionality, or its effect on the Humvee’s performance, it probably would have no significant effect.

After breathing out a relieved sigh, I then crawled underneath the car, and checked the bottom of the vehicle for any damages. The smell of oil and metal assaulted my ears, as I inwardly grimaced at the sight before my eyes. The metal that covered the entire underbelly of the vehicle had morphed and bent into one singular, fist sized point, where it then collapsed into one hole near the far back of the cargo area. What I found strange was that the metal looked… unnatural, as if what had changed its appearance wasn’t just pure physical strength.

What did the hobgoblin do back then? Had it used magic to keep the car in place? Was it a skill? If so, what kind of skill?

As questions and theories whizzed through my mind like an endless kaleidoscope of ideas, my eyes watchfully scanned the surface for any further damage. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for, but at the very least, nothing screamed “broken beyond repair”. After a few minutes of what felt like fruitless searching, I eventually came to the conclusion that nothing significant had been damaged, which in actuality, was just me confirming the fact that nothing was leaking or smoking.

With a heavy sigh intermixed with a throaty groan, I crawled away from the car, and lifted myself up.

“How is it?” Someone asked from next to me in a worried voice, as I wiped the layer of smog and sweat that gathered on my face. I turned around, only to discover everyone else gathered by the street, all staring at me with beady, anxious, worry ridden eyes.

“Um… nothing seems damaged.” I stated, unable to hide my uncertainty. “At least nothing important looking. I think the car can still last for a bit longer… If I remember correctly, this is a Humvee, right? Those things are used in the military, so it should be able to take some punishment.”

“Yeah, but isn’t this one a civilian vehicle?” The President asked with a frown on his face. “Aren’t there differences between the two?”

I furrowed my brow for a second in hard thought, before I shook my head with a sigh, and helplessly shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe, I’m not too sure myself, but…” My eyes shifted towards the car, focusing on its robust frame, and what I assumed was a durable surface. “The car looks pretty sturdy already, I don’t know what type of differences they’ll have just for being in the military, maybe a thicker shell?”

“… If we visit the military base, we’ll find out.” Hina states after a moment’s pause. Her mouth opened as if to say something, but stopped and hesitated. She bit down on her lip for a second, before continuing with a mix of caution and uncertainty. “There… there are probably still people alive in the city, right? Not all of them should have died, I mean, look, we survived, and we’re just a bunch of high schoolers. People from the military… they have guns, weapons, people with actual training, they have a better chance at surviving than anybody else on this island… I’m sure that maybe, just maybe, they… we can go and visit them, join up with them, it’ll be safer, r-reliability in numbers…”

I stayed silent, as I digested her words with a stern expression plastered on my face. Time seemed to flow endlessly as the howling wind blew through the air and tousled my hair past my face. I don’t know how long it took for me to respond, but in the end, I fruitlessly shook my head.

Her words had some inkling of truth to it, that I could not deny, but a part of me vehemently disagreed with her. As dangerous and gruesome as the dungeon was, there was one thing that it possessed that the outside didn’t, and that was order. We hunted weak monsters in order to fight stronger monsters, and we hunted stronger monsters in order to fight even stronger monsters.

The dungeon was a death trap, but at the same time, it was an opportunity. Out of all the staff and students from the school, we were the only ones who were able to use that opportunity and get stronger. From what little I’ve seen of the city; this opportunity didn’t exist. It was chaos, a hodgepodge of strong, high level monsters right from the get go. If I was to liken this to RPG terms, then it would be like having a high-class mob spawn right in with in a newbie village.

While I didn’t think the possibility of survivors was completely off the table, at the same time, it was a dangerously slim likelihood, and I don’t know how much of a difference the military makes in front of something as nonsensical and fantasy like as the situation we were in right now.

“How effective do you think a gun would be against a Cliff Ogre?” I quietly spoke, my eyes drifting towards the ground. “Will a tank, or an RPG be enough to take out a Boss class monster? Can a swarm of hobgoblins be stopped by a rain of bullets?” I looked up at her, my voice firm, yet hoarse. “How many people do you think can survive a rampaging horde? What about a horde controlled by a Boss?”

“That’s…” Hina’s face scrunched up, as her eyes darted to the side, averting my gaze. Hina had a fundamental flaw that made her vulnerable to the dangers of this new world, her humanity. I wouldn’t say she was running away from the reality in front of her, but rather, she clung too tightly to the old world. She often prioritized a whimsical fantasy of something that might not even exist anymore, over the current situation at hand. I don’t know how far such an ideology will take her, but in the end, all I could do was try and convince her otherwise.

I shook my head once more, this time in a curt and deliberate manner. “I’m not completely denying the possibility, after all, if the military got lucky and a couple of weak mobs spawned near them, then they’d be able to power level their army at a blistering speed, but… it’s too risky. The military base is all the way on the other side of the island, unless we cut through the city, or go around the entire island, we’ll never be able to make it there safely… truth of the matter is, I don’t know how dangerous such a trip will be, and also…”

My voice trailed off into quiet nothingness, as I stared out into the open field. The possibility of them surviving, while slim, wasn’t completely impossible. In fact, in my mind, which had long since gotten used to calculating the worst of situations, they were still alive and thriving. What I was really concerned about was whether or not they were willing to accept people… no, my concern was how they treated the people they accepted. The world changed, and with it, so did the people.

I felt that Hina was the type to just run into any group willing to take her in with open arms, but… even if they were willing, who knows what type of ulterior motives they’ll possess. I’ve read plenty of novels to know that this type of likelihood was certainly a possibility.

“In any case, I think we should focus our energy on a different topic. Going to the port side still seems like the best option to me.” I dismissed the idea abruptly, and changed the topic of discussion as I presented a new focus to the group. “What do you guys think?”

“…Yeah, I think that’s a good idea too.” Hina reluctantly agreed with a sigh, her head drooping to the floor as she leaned back against the surface of the Humvee.

Wordlessly, Cielle walked over towards her sister, and placed a gentle hand on the back of her shoulder. She turned towards me, and briefly tilted her head, nodding in agreement.

Minakawa was with the noncombatants in the car, so I turned to the remaining two people, the President and Cher, and waited for their response.

“Well, I don’t really have an issue with either option. I’ll go with whatever you think is best, Hide.” Cher affirmed as she scratched her head with a slight smile.

In contrast, the President bore a helpless expression. His eyes slowly swept through the rest of the party, before they landed back to me. His expression turned weird, as he frowned his lip, before he shrugged his shoulders, and said, “Even if I disagree, it’s four against one. We’ll just go with your idea, Hide.”

After receiving everyone’s acknowledgements, I nodded my head firmly, and clapped my hands. “Then, with that decided, let’s all get back in the car.” My eyes swept through our surroundings, as I explained in a low voice, “It’s not safe to be out in the open like this, who knows what could be lurking… For now, we’ll head to the gas station and fuel up, before we decide where to go next. In fact, we can decide in the car while we’re on our way there, I just don’t feel comfortable being out here like this.”

Almost in unison, everyone nodded in agreement. Their eyes briefly scanned the horizon around us, before they all unanimously boarded the car. I wasted no time, starting the car, and after a brief sputter, which let out an exhaust of black smoke, and a deafening roar from the engine, the Humvee came to life and drove further down the road westward.

****

With the wind furiously whipping besides it, the car drove across the dirt laden road for over an hour or so. It wasn’t that our destination was particularly far, but rather, the road was congested with abandoned cars and trucks flipped onto their side. At first, we thoroughly inspected and searched through each abandoned vehicle we came across, but after who knows how many cars we passed on our journey west, we eventually stopped.

Fortunately, it wasn’t all fruitless, what little we could scavenge, we scavenged, replacing a few of our lost supplies and adding new necessities/commodities that we lacked previously. We briefly debated whether to siphon the remaining fuel from the abandoned cars, but since we really had no idea how to do that, or where to start, in the end, we just decided to wait until we arrived at the gas station.

Briefly glancing at the indicator within the Humvee, I suppressed a rising groan in the back of my throat, as my eyes landed on the needle that pointed almost directly over the E. Luckily, just as I was beginning to wonder whether I’d need to push the vehicle the rest of the way there, the vague figure of the gas station came to view beyond the horizon.

I let out a brief sigh of relief, just as I stepped onto the peddle with renewed vigor. The car abruptly jolted forward with increasing speed, and in less than a minute, we quickly arrived at the front of the gas station.

A bright, almost neon green sign greeted us as I drove the car into the parking lot of the delipidated gas station. I stopped the vehicle besides one of the pumps, and got off the car. I stretched my arms out wide, my body popping and cracking, as I groaned out a satisfied cry. I almost lost myself in the euphoria that came with stretching after a long drive, before I quickly composed myself, and inspected my surroundings.

As the others quickly left the car, or got off from the cargo area, they too followed my lead, and scanned through the area with vigilant, almost hawk like eyes.

After a few seconds, and finding nothing out of the blue except the tiny sparrows that gathered and mingled on top of the cable lines, my tensed shoulders dropped and I exhaled out a puff of air that I had not realized I had been holding in. Despite my relief though, the hand that tightly held onto the handle of my sword never once loosened.

With practiced caution, I carried with me, all of my essential weapons, from the tiny, toy sized war axe that I began keeping in my front pants pocket, to Efhermet, which I placed underneath my shirt, to the wooden boken that I had personally carved and strapped to my back, everything that I valued and cared for was there. Of course, without exception, Fynch, which dangled by my side, was also accompanying me as I walked further away from the car.

“Hide, where are you going?” Someone asked from behind.

I turned and saw, the President, arranging his glasses, as he was in the midst of getting off the cargo area. His disarrayed hair, that had grown out during the months we had been trapped within the dungeon, was tousled and swept away from his face by the wind.

“I’m going to go check the convenience store.” I briefly responded, before turning back around and facing the empty, and abandoned store that was lit by the faint rays of sunlight that managed to penetrate through the stained-glass windows on the walls. “You guys stay here, and keep a look out for anything remotely suspicious. Don’t hesitate to yell if something bad happens or if there’s an emergency. Meanwhile, Prez, fill up the tank.”

“Ah, wait.” The President’s expression faltered, as his brow began to sweat. “I-I’m not really good with vehicles, I don’t think I can…”

I offhandedly laughed, as I began to walk to the store. “Don’t worry so much, all of us are on the same boat as you. Whether it’s you, Hina, or me, it won’t make a difference, seeing as how clueless we all are. Just make sure to get gas into the car, and we’ll be fine.”

“But…” The President’s words died out, as his gaze shifted to the Humvee behind him. He groaned out in frustration, and as I continued to walk further away, I could hear him mumbling, “… How do I open the tank?”

When I reached the front of the door, my steps abruptly jolted, as my eyes narrowed. From behind me, I could hear, Cielle’s familiar voice calling out to me, accompanied by the sound of soft footsteps running hurriedly to catch up.

“Hide, wait for me, I’ll go with you.” She spoke, but her words passed through one ear and out the other, my focus remained fixated on the brown stained glass door in front of me, or rather, more specifically, the crumpled piece of paper attached to the surface.

“Hide, thanks for waiting,” a soft voice spoke besides, “What are you—” Cielle’s words abruptly stopped, and from the corner of my vision, I could see her face contorting into a similar expression to the one I currently adorned. Her eyes squinted in both curiosity and caution, while her brows creased beneath the curtain of black hair that covered much of her face.

My eyes, which were likewise fixed on the door, once again read through the contents, this time, with much more serious scrutiny than previously. There, scratched on with faded red marker, and written in both English and Japanese, was one single sentence that managed to send a chilling shiver down my spine;

“Survivors to Kagetaka Port.”