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..."
The short-haired woman took a long look at the departing figure of the man, her emotions in conflict. When she finally came back to her senses, her expression had turned resolute, and she held the pistol in one hand and her sister's hand in the other. They ran in the rain toward a small, dark alley...
I believed that I was heading in the right direction, but more and more looters kept appearing everywhere around me. What exactly happened?
"Ah... no...!"
Shouts of agony rang out from the end of the street on my left but stopped after a while. A looter was pressed onto the ground by three ghouls, and his flesh was being ripped apart. His shouts finally stopped when his throat was torn away.
Damn! The ghouls were already near, and they were everywhere. Shouts of pain rang out around us, and I decided to take cover for the time being. I looked around my surroundings and chose an abandoned tower about 20 storeys high.
I saw the words "Meiko Tech" on the background of the reception area of the building, and it should have used to be an office building. I found the emergency stairway and decided to climb up to the upper levels to escape from the ghouls. Even if I shot at them from the roof of this tower, I believe they could not get to me.
I saw a lift at the ground floor with its indication panel still lit, but after my traumatic experience in the laboratory, I did not dare to try taking lifts in abandoned buildings again. I did not want to take the risk of being squashed into pulp after falling from the 10th storey.
There were 18 floors on this building to be exact, and I took five minutes to climb to the top. I found an office that could be locked and decided to rest inside after confirming that the lock still worked.
I blocked the entrance of the office with a cabinet and unslung my backpack, before patting away the dust on a chair and sitting down on it. I was tired indeed, and fell asleep shortly after I closed my eyes and leaned back.
"Beep beep beep... boop boop boop..."
At first, sporadic gunfire rang out, but a large roar rang out shortly after.
"Boom..."
A large explosion rang out.
The sounds of battle below me shook me awake. I walked to the window and looked down with the telescopic sight of my rifle, and what I saw shocked me.
A few figures wearing combat armor were moving swiftly in the southwest direction, and they looked behind before firing from time to time. The weapons they were using seemed to be standard issue, and there was a swarm of ghouls behind them, numbering a few thousand. Furthermore, waves of the creatures were congregating upon them.
After increasing the distance between themselves and the ghouls, the figures quickly entered a small building. Oh? A police cruiser? It seemed to be a police station, but what did they go inside for?
A few of them then blocked the entrance of the station with desks. What was this? Why were they not running away but barricading themselves in for? Were they planning to kill all of the ghouls here? What a joke. I believed that the ammunition they were carrying were not enough for all those ghouls.
The wave of ghouls soon surrounded the police station. At this moment, a few bayonets appeared one after another from the windows on the ground level and pierced accurately into the skulls of the ghouls.
This group of people were really out of their minds...
They were really making a stand against the ghouls, and they were very well trained.
The ghouls, who were in a frenzy, had surrounded the station and could not reach beyond the walls of the building to the tantalizing flesh that they desired. The soldiers slew them effortlessly, and soon there was a pile of ghoul corpses below the windows. I did not know the purpose of their appearance, and I did not believe that God had sent them to exterminate the ghouls from this world.
Not long after, they switched to using their firearms. I did not understand why. Were they tired from stabbing? Who knows.
The slaughter continued, but the number of ghouls did not diminish. Instead, there were more and more of them congregating upon the police station.
The satisfying show lasted for a while more before the ghouls smashed through the blockade at the entrance of the station, allowing the ghouls to swarm in.
That's the end of those soldiers!
"Boom..."
A large explosion disrupted the sporadic gunfire, and the door of the building was blown cleanly away. From my spot, I could see an eruption of blood, and it seemed demonic.
"Annihilation!"
Even though their bravery was commendable, they had overestimated their own capability.
The clearing created by the explosion was soon filled, and the bloodthirsty ghouls swarmed into the station, fighting to get to the tasty meals.
I did not know how long it would take for them to disperse, and this was my most pressing concern now. The food in my backpack could last me for a few days, but if this dragged on, I would have to put myself in danger again.
What noise was that?
A strange sound came from outside the building, and it seemed to come from the air.
It was a helicopter! I caught sight of a 'Big Iron Bird', something that only existed in the legends of Dick Town.
The helicopter flew above the station and a pilot ladder was flung out of its side. A figure appeared on the roof and began climbing up.
This person was lucky to have survived.
Where did they come from?
It seemed like the Wasteland was more complicated then I had thought it would be.