“Oh. Here?”

After those few moments of complete silence, the static grated at everybody’s ears, causing Evan and Frank to recoil slightly.

Through his half-open eyes, Evan saw Violet skip over to someone in the distance.

“Is that, Io?”

There was no mistaking the nun-like outline. Io had walked out from the corner at a distance from where they were. On her hand was the black sword she had shown Evan the night before. She was dragging a large pelican case with her other hand, and strapped to her back was another, new sword with a white grip.

“I knew you’d be here!”

Io looked quite uncomfortable with being hugged from behind by the slightly taller Violet.

“But some people didn’t believe me.”

Evan grumbled.

As if nothing happened, Violet’s attitude became bubbly like always. Being pushed away by Io didn’t douse any of the playful fire within her either. It was a wonder if they were attracting any undead with all the noise they were making, but there shouldn’t be a problem since they’ve already dealt with most of the remaining undead on their way.

Despite that, Evan was glad to have found her, and he couldn’t help but relax. It was then that he realized that the suffocating feeling from earlier had completely disappeared, almost as if it was just a dream.

“No talk, echo. Come up. Here, not good.”

Io finally managed to get rid of Violet by pushing against her face before she walked... ran away back where she came from. Violet followed after giving Evan a look that said “see, I told you so,” which was rather annoying.

Following behind the two women, they came to a collapsed hallway after ascending a flight of stairs that looked inappropriately-designed for use to descend to a sewer. Frank guessed that they had entered something similar to a secret passageway when they took the new path; the partition or wall that separated it from the sewer might have collapsed or something along the way.

The state of the building was bad, but it was mostly still intact. From the appearance, it looked to have been a high-end hotel at one point. At least the perimeter was still in pristine condition, so there was no way undead could enter if the openings were barricaded properly. And that they were; heavy furniture had been placed neatly behind every door just tall enough to prevent climbing over it. Paper, tarpaulin, bed sheets and all kinds of other materials had been taped onto the windows to avoid being seen from the outside.

Evan stood in the middle of the lobby and admired the thought that had gone into the arrangements. Frank, ever the vigilant man, had already positioned himself at an indoor balcony which had a great view over the entirety of the glassed-up façade.

He was waiting for Io, who told them to wait while she retrieved a few other things.

According to her, because Evan had an injury and there was no way they could contact Violet and Frank’s group, she decided in a spur of the moment to continue alone. The plan was to get what she needed from that building quickly and then return back to where Evan was. Since it technically wasn’t a significant distance away, running a solo mission for a brief period of time seemed to make a lot of sense to her. She said that she didn’t account for the other group to force a regroup.

Evan felt slightly guilty for not telling her that. Because they had always been a three-person team until that time, they had a plan for almost every conceivable incident. In that case, in the event that the team had been separated but they were aware of where each other were, the group without Violet will stay where they were until Violet and whoever she had with her arrived. She was free to use any means she deemed necessary to force that plan into fruition, including explosives.

Of course, any means to communicate was still vastly preferable to none at all.

To be fair to Evan, he did not know Io was bold enough to proceed by herself, but in hindsight he was also aware that she had been without any companions in that city for a long while already.

He looked back towards Violet, who had collapsed on the sofa and slept. She was slightly curled-up while facing the backrest; an unusual position considering her nature.

Despite what she had said in the tunnels earlier, she must have been exhausted from the ordeal.

He was concerned about other, similarly important things, but those could always wait when they’ve returned to the safety of camp. It was clear that he wouldn’t be able to get any good answers from her at that point in time anyway. He was a man who knew how to let things go temporarily.

Before long, Io returned. She wasn’t carrying anything else. But there was a troubled expression on her face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked worriedly. Io looked up at him and opened her hands.

“Come, please. Help.”

Judging by her body language, it was nothing life-threatening. He agreed and followed her after giving a signal to Frank that he would be gone for a bit. Violet was still fast asleep.

They walked through a tall and spacious corridor for a while, making turns here and there. The carpets that lined the floor gave off a musty smell that intensified every time they stepped on it. There were also bloodstains on the floor and walls, but they had already dried out long ago and nothing but marks had remained. Still, seeing ones that were shaped like hands or even faces creeped him the hell out.

“Here.”

They stopped at a large set of double doors. When Io opened it, he realized that it used to be a banquet hall. The tables and chairs were strewn messily around the floor, and there were collectively more bloodstains there than back in the corridor.

Immediately, he realized why that was so; there was a large hole roughly three meters above the floor, with the debris located below it on the inside. A few paces across, there was a particularly large bloodstain that looked like a splatter several meters across.

“Not there. Look.”

Io pointed at a dark corner of the hall on the opposite side where the hole was. Evan couldn’t believe his eyes.

“These are all... supplies?”

She nodded and walked towards a table set up near the mountainous stacks of boxes. Evan lagged behind her, in awe of the sheer number of resources in front of him.

“Need help. Pick items... don’t know.”

“We... don’t need to carry everything,” he replied, still gawking at the treasure before him. “Just take things that last long.”

“Aware. But, which?”

Realization dawned on him and he suddenly felt stupid.

On the table were several duffle bags, each around the size of Evan’s torso. There were also blades of all kinds, which Evan guessed were Io’s top picks to bring among those she left behind. After all, they had no plans to return there afterwards. While it was a shame to leave a veritable hill of supplies behind them, they had no choice. It was etiquette between scavengers to take just enough for them to carry so others could benefit. Of course, not everybody followed this unspoken gesture, but it was also a warning more often than not.

A lot of people died trying to backtrack and retrieve what they had left behind.

Because they already had several bags filled with items earlier, Evan had to estimate that they could only carry three or four more bags with them. He didn’t want to burden Io, who insisted that she be the one to carry her items, and Violet with having to carry more than one bag each. Though, it was dangerous to excessively load both him and Frank. Io’s massive case was beside him; it was black with a faded brand tag on top. It had two handles, and one of which was a retractable one for use as a trolley. However, the wheels had broken underneath it, which explained the rough dragging sound it produced back underground.

He started sorting through the boxes for the most important articles with a smile on his face.

Though Julyette was an irreplaceable member of the group, the supposed short trip to retrieve her weapon and pick up multiple small batches of supplies along the way had turned into a treasure hunt. Coming up to such a big hoard would make anybody break into a grin.

In addition, recruiting Io would be a major increase in their firepower.

The mirth in his heart was short-lived, however, as he realized that Io had sorted through the boxes similar to how she did their supplies the night before; by their packaging.

He sighed. It was going to be a long day.

He continued to work through the boxes, only stopping for a late lunch with Io and Frank back at the lobby. Violet was still asleep at that time, and wouldn’t wake up regardless of what they did. Her breathing was calm and her complexion was excellent, though, so in the end they decided to chalk it up to exhaustion and let her be. Just in case, they left an opened can of rehydrated beans beside her.

After their meal, both Evan and Io returned to sort through her supplies. In actuality, only Evan was doing all the work because he didn’t want Io to place something weird or useless into the bags.

Due to having gone through most of the containers before him, he realized that most of the items inside were actually useless.

Who would gather boxes of straws or chalk?

Of course, there were really useful things as well. He was pleasantly surprised to see several parcels of lithium batteries and even flares. There was also an entire box full of bottled water. But the most important thing he discovered was something non-essential.

Cigarettes. And there were a lot of them. In total there were five boxes; four of them were completely full while the fifth only had a few reams left.

While these used to be one of the cheapest things money could buy, the almost complete annihilation of production lines and industrial produce had made the value of cigarettes to skyrocket beyond people’s wildest dreams. Due to being a consumable, none of these lasted long, and despite their value, almost none of them were sold. After all, most if not everybody had eventually picked up a smoking habit due to the stress of trying to survive. Evan wasn’t any different, and so were Violet, Frank, and almost everyone else back at camp.

“Umm... are these yours, Io?”

His voice trembled in trepidation; the reason for which was obvious.

“Mm. Yes. Mine... like.”

Heartbreak. Evan clearly felt the shock to his heart from Io’s words. His shoulders sank in disappointment and his mouth couldn’t stop itself from uttering a bleak sigh of longing.

Io looked at him from the side. Her head was tilted in confusion. Moments later she was struck with an epiphany.

“Evan, like too?”

“Yeah. They’re hard to find nowadays, you know?”

“Here.”

He turned his head to see Io offering a cigarette to his mouth. It slightly startled him.

“Uhh...”

She was holding the cigarette so close to him that it would be awkward to grab it out of her hand. Did she expect him to just take it away from her using his lips? He stared at her. The look on her face showed no ulterior motives of any kind. He felt that the gesture was purely out of goodwill, so it kind of made him feel guilty for thinking otherwise.

Blushing slightly, he bit the cigarette out of her hand. That was when he noticed another couple of details. One, the cigarette was already lit, and secondly, the filter was slightly damp.

He was taken aback. Did she...?

“Good, right?”

“Y-yeah. It is.”

Awkward.

He watched her from the side as she took another stick from her back pocket and lit it with a match. Her movements were practiced, very much unlike the way she handled every other modern item. What shocked him even more was how she essentially inhaled the entire stick in one go before billowing a thick, almost liquid stream of smoke.

And then she lit another stick.

“You really like to smoke, huh?”

He couldn’t help but ask her. The way she smoked the first stick in a few seconds and lit a second immediately after like it was the most natural thing in the world prompted him to do so. The response was a nod with similar promptness.

With that moment shared, they wordlessly continued their work. Though it felt awkward for Evan due to what happened earlier, Io felt no such thing and simply inspected the weapons she had spread diligently. Sometimes she would bring Evan’s attention to a blade, often accompanied with a friendly inquiry such as whether Violet, Frank or he would like it.

After a while Evan managed to get over his shame and converse with Io properly; though, there really wasn’t much they could talk about. It was mostly thanks to their continued consumption of the excessive number of cigarettes that Io had in stock.

All the chemicals had gotten into Evan’s brain, more like.

Having the opportunity, Evan decided to ask Io about that thing they encountered in the tunnel. He was sure that she had encountered it because of the corpse trail. But upon describing the monster they saw; Io simply tilted her head.

“Have not.”

“But... your trail led us towards there, you know? Did you look up?”

“Go there, no. Straight here. Detours... none,” she replied as-a-matter-of-factly. That utterly baffled Evan. “But, know. Many undead... stronger undead.”

Strangely she had the same kind of esoteric knowledge that White Raven had.

Banking on the possibility that her mothers had endowed her with more than just that fact, he described what he had seen underground to her as detailed as he could. She placed a knife’s tip on her teeth and went into thought, but eventually came up empty. She apologized too, which caused Evan to become flustered.

“Violet was so freaked out that she fainted. That was the first time I’ve seen her react like that.”

It wasn’t a secret. Even Violet would argue that it was better to tell people they trusted what their weaknesses were so they could cover for it. While Io wasn’t formally part of the team yet, at that point it was no longer if, but when she would officially become part of the team. And though she did abandon him earlier that morning, she did so with good, though suicidal intentions and had even erected a barricade on the other side of the door so he couldn’t be attacked while he slept. Plus, she did save his life.

Besides, it was a good way to get back at Violet for all the bullying. Once she wakes up, Io will be aware of at least one embarrassing fact about her. Evan contemplated telling Io more, but decided it’ll depend on where the conversation went.

Fortunately, Io was quite receptive to the stories and he ended up telling her quite a lot of inane, useless events. He hoped that by the end of daylight Io would have had her impression of Violet at the point where the former would break into a stifled giggle whenever she saw the latter.

They talked for hours as they worked on their respective tasks, with Io sharpening her blades and Evan comparing and packing essential items. He packed two duffle bags completely with cigarettes, leaving only one more to fill. That was why he took a lot of time to sort through things he thought they would actually need. Eventually, Io took over after Evan had run out of things to tell.

She told him about what kind of training she had gone through and what she had learned about fighting undead, as well as more light-hearted memories such as her mothers bickering and the like. That was when he realized – Io didn’t have many good memories.

For Evan, the apocalypse was but a fraction of his life. But Io; she had spent the vast majority of her life trying to survive.

It saddened him, but he knew that she wasn’t alone. He’s already met many children with the same circumstances.

He wondered what his own child was doing. He or she would have been born a few months after the start of the disaster. With no end to the tunnel not in sight, he could only sigh in fear that his child’s entire life would be spent in suffering. Despite never meeting, his paternal instincts still retained strength and continued screaming at him to make the world a better place. However, it directly conflicted against his logic and reasoning; what could he, as a single person, do?

“Hmm... not good. Rust. Lots.”

Io raised a combat knife by its blade, carefully scrutinizing its surface. Its surface was almost completely covered by corrosion, and there were signs of attempts on cleaning it. However, without any tools or chemicals Evan imagined that doing so was likely futile.

To her side were a small pile of weapons in similar states. He was surprised that she had managed to collect that many blades.

“... You could bring those as well if you want. We have a mechanic at camp that could clean and maintain those weapons for you.”

If they didn’t, Violet would have been fighting with her bare fists at that point. She was abusive with her weapons and barely knew a thing about inspection and maintenance.

He expected to lessen Io’s troubles with that. Violet also offered it as one of the benefits of joining their team. Essentially it was only a reminder of that. But instead, Io looked even more troubled than she was earlier.

“Then... what to bring? Can take good. Can bring bad. Which?”

“Oh.”

He really just wanted to tell her that it was fine to bring everything.

It was the most wasteful dinner they’ve ever had in the last decade.

A long table, stained with mold and blood, was set up at a corner of the banquet hall away from the mess of supplies at the opposite side. On it were packets, boxes, tin cans and glass jars of all kinds of food. Granted, they were all preserved goods, it was nothing a good cook couldn’t fix. That was, if they had a good cook. The gruel tasted terrible, the bread was hard and stale, and the shriveled fruits were saltier than the seas... yet it was enjoyable nonetheless.

But despite the veritable, though questionable feast before them, everyone ate at a snail’s pace. It wasn’t because of any peculiar atmosphere. Simply put, it was the result of a combination of various circumstances.

For one, despite holding the feast being her idea, Violet didn’t like eating much in the first place. It was just who she was and not the result of something like a stomach-ache. Frank, a former soldier, disliked feeling full in the middle of a mission or operation. Io, who had a normal appetite, was having difficulties eating properly due to being unfamiliar with many of the things presented to her. And Evan was busy helping Io.

“You two look like you’re enjoying yourselves,” Violet snickered while nibbling on a hardtack. “Evan, maybe she’s been your kid all this time?”

Frank grinned on the side but avoided commenting. He knew that the topic of Evan’s family was a sore spot that only Violet, in her infinite lack of consideration, could bring up. Evan, meanwhile, only reacted with an exhausted sigh.

Io’s head shot towards Evan.

“She was joking, Io.”

“... I know.”

Evan threw a packet of dried beans at Violet in retaliation, but much to his chagrin she easily caught it in midair.

“By the way, Io, what’s in the case?”

Without even probing around the matter, the ever-so-sensitive Violet asked Io about the contents of her “personal items” directly. Evan clutched his head in shame while Frank just shook his head. They braced themselves for Io’s displeasure, but they were instead met with just two words from her:

“Not telling.”

“Please? You can tell me; I won’t tell these two dirty men. Whisper?”

“No.”

Evan stifled his laughter. The same packet of dried beans he threw hit him right between the eyes.

Though he was curious himself, it didn’t seem to be anything major considering she was willing to just leave it on the side back when he was sorting through usable supplies. It was quite heavy though.

Io nibbled on a piece of meat jerky. Evan had no idea if they were still edible, but she hadn’t been complaining at all so he assumed it tasted just fine. Maybe packaging technology had improved by leaps and bounds without him noticing back during the good old days?

“It’s already gone bad, by the way.”

It was too late. Evan retched as the putrid-tasting meat destroyed his idea of what food was. He immediately spit out what he had bitten and he coughed out both the sensation and the idea of what he had eaten.

“What the hell...”

He looked up to see Io and Violet, who looked like they had no issues with it. The latter in particular took decently large bites nonchalantly.

“Food is food, yeah?” she said between mouthfuls.

There were other things they could eat which hadn’t gone bad, but Violet looked quite content stuffing herself with it. Io, on the other hand, looked like she simply didn’t care.

Frank was eating a mix of dried fruit, beans, grains and jam, with a bit of water. It tasted just as bad as it sounded, but it was at least palatable. Evan, well, he had prepared something not dissimilar to the chocolate rice porridge he had seen his boss prepare. But instead of chocolate, he used coffee since Io seemed quite partial to it. The result wasn’t as bad as he thought it would. And judging by the four servings Io had already consumed, she seemed to like it a lot as well.

He made sure to stuff as much coffee as he could for the journey back. The folks over at camp would surely appreciate having coffee during the mornings as well. It wasn’t fresh coffee, sure, but it was still the preferred beverage of all... most adults everywhere.

Violet cleared her throat in a way to gather everybody’s attention.

“Anyway, we were talking about how we’ll proceed tomorrow.”

No, they weren’t. But Evan just took it as Violet’s way to start a conversation.

She gestured at Evan to explain. He had checked the surrounding area from the third floor of the building earlier. It would have been better if he was higher up, but the staircase to the upper floors had been barricaded shut by huge, heavy furniture and appliances. Beyond the barrier he could hear the groans of an unreasonable number of undead.

Of course, being a hotel, the building would have had a large population housed within.

“What do you want to start with; the good news or the bad news?”

“Start with the bad news of course.”

Evan narrowed his eyes in displeasure at Violet, who grinned at him mischievously.

“Okay, the good news is that the outskirt isn’t as far as we thought— “

After ducking just in time to dodge a box Violet indignantly threw at him, Evan continued.

“It’s just a few city blocks from where we are. Most of the buildings in the way are intact at least from where I saw them. They’re tightly arranged but there’s an alley between them we could take.”

He drank a mouthful of water to wet his throat and went on.

“I recognize this part of the city; it’s a good distance away from camp but it’s not that far. Once we reach the woods, it’s like a fifteen-minute sprint if the ground’s dry. It’s far enough to lose any undead that we might attract.”

“Which route are we going to take? Can we travel through the roofs?”

As their rifleman, Frank preferred to travel high. His consideration was apt.

“It’s definitely safer, but it would take more time. The roads here are wide, so we’ll need to cross them a few times regardless. That means we’ll have to travel up and down several times. Going through the alleys will be faster in comparison, but we won’t get a good vantage point. And that’s where the bad news comes in.”

“How many zombies?”

Violet knew where he was going, as expected. And he only had one response:

“A lot.”

He had to stop for a bit because Io asked for another helping of porridge.

“The good thing is that there weren’t as many as the horde we saw outside the boutique during our first day. But there’s still quite a party outside. Going through the road for the fastest route is definitely a no go.”

“Will distractions work?”

“There’s too many around us. We’ll just pull one side and attract the other.”

“Parked cars somewhere else?”

Due to the mass panic of the earlier era, most cars had either been abandoned on the road or taken to the countryside. However, there were a few which hadn’t been touched for over a decade. Cars that were in proper parking spaces were likely one of those kinds. These were very likely still stocked with fuel, and could be set to explode from afar using the explosives Frank had made the night before. That would certainly attract most of the undead in the area towards that location, emptying the surroundings.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t see any.”

“Fight through, can’t?”

The brazen suggestion was offered by none other than Io, who could solo a narrow tunnel full of undead without getting hurt. However, that wasn’t an option anymore.

“We’re no longer going straight through a tunnel. There’s way too many on our flanks. I’m sure you’ll get through just fine, and Violet as well probably, but unlike you two me and Frank are just normal people.”

Frank nodded heavily on the side with his arms comically crossed.

They continued listing down possible options to make the trip easier, and crossed out everything that wasn’t. It didn’t take long, however, as there really wasn’t much in the way of information. Though Evan had mostly memorized the city’s layout and facilities, there was no way he could see the state of each building’s interior where he stood.

He didn’t like planning on unknowns. Unlike certain people—

“I know everybody’s exhausted, but I suggest we take the longest route through the building rooftops. We could throw glass bottles a distance away to lure some of them out of the buildings.”

It was a perfectly reasonable and the safest plan available to them. While most people preferred to avoid encasing themselves between walls, Evan was partial to it as it restricted the undead more than it did them. As long as they traveled overground, he was confident about their chances.

"Sounds good."

Violet, who until recently had been almost completely ignoring all of his suggestions suddenly voiced her support. If he was being honest, it was pretty shocking.

"I suppose nobody has any issues with that?"

The long way would add an unknown amount of time to their travel, but it was better than running headlong into the unknown like they've been doing since recently. The rooftops didn't allow them to be mobbed by undead, which was the most important thing.

Everybody shook their heads at Violet's question. She nodded in satisfaction.

“We’ll leave tomorrow morning. Just in case, Evan and I will take the first watch for four hours. Then, Frank and Io will take over for six. Make sure you've all packed everything before sunrise. We set out at the first sight of the day.”

The two men nodded. They were used to early morning activities so it was completely fine for them. Most importantly, everybody wanted to be back at camp where they could finally breathe easy. Io, however—

“Can’t.”

The mood immediately turned ice cold.

“Do you still have things to do here?” Violet asked. Her voice carried a slight tone of annoyance that Evan didn’t miss. Considering they've already missed their date by a few days, her vexation was understandable even if she was the one who encouraged capitulating to her conditions in the first place. Though it was difficult to completely discern her expression due to only having one eye to observe, Evan was sure that she was quite displeased.

Io, meanwhile, replied naturally, completely oblivious of Violet's mood.

“Need to sleep. Until noon. Fifteen hours.”

“Huh?”