154 Little Sister, Need Some Help? (1/2)

Nik glanced behind him. The new recruits safely reached the western residential side of the bridge and were now acting as bystander's, watching the scene. He shouted, ”Get out of here! Have you received your portal runes yet? If not just run back to the mall and ask for help.”

The new recruits, mostly women, retreated after much hesitation. Two people remained and walked back on Nik's side of the bridge.

”Get moving!” Nik yelled once more.

”We want to help!” said the only man.

”Our friend's still missing.” replied the woman.

Nik saw their resolve hidden in their anxious expressions. Since they have a reason to stay and they seem to know their stuff, he agreed but told them to stick closely and to not do anything stupid.

At the same that he started giving pointers on how to defend and attack as a group, Bartolome shouted with all his might from his side. He said, ”Get on the van!”

Nik became startled and quickly turned around. He saw a woman ran out of an alley just to meet with the horde of carriers. She quickly run and got a headstart but the carriers behind were gaining momentum as if they were an engine revving up and were only reaching their top speed.

Since she was unable to think clearly and after hearing the restless snarls and groans behind her,  she quickly accepted the suggestion and jumped as high as she could to reach the van's hood in front of her. Her legs spread as wide as it possibly could but she felt her jeans resisting and caused her other leg to not produce the movement she wanted to, resulting in her knees hitting the front bumper. She endured the pain and quickly got up, then limped towards the van's roof.

The man and the woman behind Nik widened their eyes in horror after seeing the person being chased. They both shouted their friend's name, ”Anna!

Emman and Erin rushed out and started clanging their shields. They bravely strode forward but when some of the carriers turned to them, they froze on the spot. They were afraid and couldn't move their bodies as if paralyzed. Its because ”some” was already a huge amount since there were hundreds of carriers.

Nik didn't know what to do. If he had atleast ten experienced people with him, he was sure that he could take this horde and stall for time. But reality wasn't that good to him. Besides Bartolome, the two people that remained appeared courageous but were still green. He's a bit regretful that he wouldn't be able to help the woman but he can't sacrifice more people for her sake. Just as he was about to give the order, the man stashed his sword and shield, then brought out a crossbow.

”Enri! Let's go! We have to save her!” said the man as he loaded the crossbow while walking forward.

The woman appeared daze and unmoving. She watched as her friend defended herself from carriers that tried to climb up the hood of the van. She used the sword to destabalized those who managed to climb the hood and the shield to sometimes push them off, while staying at the center of the roof.

The van was now surrounded and due to overcrowding, some became uninterested and walked past the van, choosing to go after the people in the distance.

Emman fired of a lucky shot that struck one carrier on the head. The carrier fell down and caused the ones behind it to tumble down and sprain their legs. Some fell first on the ground causing their noses to break, making dark blood drip down ceaselessly.

”Erin!” Emman shouted to wake her friend, which succeeded, as Erin finally turned to him. ”We need to saver her. She could have ignored as back when we got pinned down, but she saved us.” Emman stared at his one-time partner after loading a bolt on his crossbow. ”We owe her.”

Emman fired another bolt and since the carrier were now 20meters in front of them, he hit a head shot after taking aim properly, then switched to sword and shield and waited in bated breathes for the carriers to come closer.

”Damn it!” Erin yelled abruptly. It wasn't known why, maybe to convince herself or just she truly hates the situation. When they were going back after their scavenging trip, they met a group of carriers. With her as the vanguard and Emman as support, they were able to barely win. The moment they felt relieve was the same moment that a new group came after them since they didn't really fought quietly. With Emman having not retrieved his bolts, they quickly lost their advantage of being to thin out the group and could only try a melee combot. That's the time when Anna came and save them. That's also the reason why she was in a bad mood whenever she sees Anna. Deep inside her, she felt that she could do better than her and was just caught in a bad position.

Erin positioned herself beside Emman, armed with the steel sword and stout shield, she said, ”So, what's the plan? This isn't even in the same scale as to what happened with us. We can't kill them all, and you know that. You can't expect a miracle either. Look at her movements. It seems that her leg has some problems. She's stuck there until we killed all of them.”

”I know the odds aren't good... but, we should atleast try.”

The carrier finally arrived and lunged at him. Emman gripped the handle of the shield tighter and braced for impact. Just then he heard a voice from behind him, telling him to dodge. He listened and stepped to the side. The carrier missed him and continued moving forward due to its momentum.

Shrwaak.

A sword lodged itself on its head after being swung from the top.