Chapter 12 - Its Not Easy (1/2)

Chapter 12 It’s Not Easy

I sat at the corner of the room and gazed at the streets, quietly observing the increasingly heavy downpour.

“Splish splash…”

A white flash of light flew past the door, accompanied by the rumbling sound of thunder. I lost count of how many times lightning flashed in the skies, but they grew increasingly blinding, and I could not help but feel a little perplexed.

I turned my attention back to the sisters who were snuggling in the other end of the room. They had fallen asleep leaning on each other after satisfying their hunger, and the sight amused me.

They were physically disadvantaged and in a room with a fully armed man in the Wasteland, a place fraught with danger. I did not understand how they could have fallen asleep nor how they dared to fall asleep.

Sigh, I was still a little soft-hearted.

…

The sounds of a flurry of footsteps came from the streets, and even though they were indistinct with the cover of thunder, I could still hear them. I drew my pistol and stuck my head out of a window slightly, observing the roads outside.

The people running in the rain were dressed like looters, but they evidently looked different from your usual looter who wore better equipment. Even though they wore leather armor, they were covered with steel plates, and this was capable of stopping small caliber rounds. All of them carried semi-automatic hunting rifles, and from the length of their barrels, I could deduce that their effective range was quite far. Each of them was grabbing on to a discarded plastic mould to shield them from the rain as they ran.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry! There’s a lot of them at the entrance of the Central Subway Station!”

The burly man running in front of the pack said as he hurried the others.

What happened?

I looked in the direction they were running to and did not notice anything different. Was that… fire? There seemed to be a fire burning somewhere in the distance?

No matter what that was, I was not interested in joining in the party. There were too many looters gathering around now.

In a short span of time, many waves of looters had already run past our end of the street. A few of them even noticed my presence, but they continued running toward the fire after throwing me a short glance.

There were sounds from the room. The two sisters had probably been awake for a while now and they looked to be struggling with their emotions as they observed the looters running across the streets. If they wanted to survive, I believe they would have to join the gang of looters operating in the vicinity. That said, how were they going to do that? I found it hard to believe that they could even kill a mutant rat with a small knife.

They were not vicious or bold enough. Such characters were unwelcome amongst the ranks of looters, and this was probably why they were outcasts. Think about it—who would provide food for two women who were unwilling to raid yet unwilling to starve in this looter controlled territory? It would not matter how many men they slept with—they were not the only women around, and the men would not be so free everytime.

I felt that it was a miracle both of them could have survived till now.

They lowered their heads, and I had no idea what they were thinking about.

…

Another band of looters ran past our building, but the strange thing was that they were heading in the opposite direction from their counterparts. They seemed to be panicking and kept turning their heads back, but I did not pay much heed to them.

Soon after, however, I could clearly make out even more footsteps on the streets outside above the sounds of rumbling thunder. This was unusual, and I walked out of the entrance, looking in the direction of the fire with a pistol in hand.

The fire had now covered half of the horizon, and waves of panicky looters were fleeing from its direction into the various streets.

What happened?

I holstered my pistol and unslung my sniper rifle, aiming the telescopic sight at the far end of the streets. However, I only managed to see the fleeing looters and damaged pavement soaked in lead-colored radioactive rain.

Hold on!

A figure in my sights suddenly fell onto the ground, and another figure behind him immediately leaped onto his back. The two of them tangled with each other, and I could not see clearly in the darkness. Soon, more figures appeared behind them and charged toward them in a strange stance, quickly drowning them out from my view. I began to have a bad premonition…

“Pa…”

A bolt of lightning cut across the skies, instantly filling the streets with white light.

Ghouls! The huge wave of figures running in our direction were ghouls!

The clear and sudden danger made me incredibly tensed. I had to leave this district as soon as possible, weather be damned.

I turned around quickly and nearly knocked the two sisters, whom I had not expected to be standing behind me, to the ground. I did not know when they had walked out of the building and stood beside me. Their faces had turned deathly pale after having seen the ghouls heading in our way as well.

“It’s about time; let’s leave this area quickly.”

I skirted around the short-haired woman who was in a daze, giving her a warning before I left.

I turned back toward the direction of the approaching ghouls, but saw that they were still standing at the same spot in a daze. The small knife that had been in the sheath of the elder sister’s leg was now in the hands of the younger girl, and her hands trembled as she held the weapon.

“Sigh…”

I sighed, suddenly realizing that I had never been as wishy-washy as I was now.

I walked back to them and fished out a pistol and two clips, placing them in their hands.

“Live on in good health.”

I then left them looking on in surprise, never turning my head around again.

“Hey! I’m Casilia and my sister is Evelyn…”