I was sitting around a campfire, feeling multiple stares directed at me.

I looked to my left and saw Hiro and Rui staring back and forth between me and Kentaro and Yumiko, while my mother and sister were doing the same thing. I guess I have to give it to them that it's pretty weird of me to bring two people they didn't know to a camping trip but it's not like it'll matter for long.

Tomorrow morning we'll all pass out and after we wake the world will be so different they'll probably forget about this awkward situation.

Kentaro and Yumiko seemed oblivious to the situation, however, as Kentaro kept trying to get me to drink with him, while Yumiko continued to playfully flirt with me - to the annoyance of my mother, sister, and Rui.

"Aniki, come, let's drink underneath the stars!" Kentaro put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me out of my pondering. I looked over at him, smiling at his slightly drunken behavior. Seeing no harm in it, I went to take a beer off him but before I could do so, two voice practically forced me to stop.

"Akira!" "Akira, don't you dare!" I looked over at my mom and Rui who were both standing with their hands on their hips, glaring at me. I still took the beer anyway. "AKIRA!" my mom stormed over and wanted to take it from me but I pacified her extremely quickly.

"Calm down, mom, it's a single beer. We're out camping for the weekend, so let's enjoy ourselves, okay?" I looked at her before holding the beer up, "Here, mom, let's have a drink together, alright?" I smiled at her, genuinely wanting to have a drink with my mother before all the shit hit the fan.

She looked at me and my happy smile before snatching the beer and a 'Hmph' came from her mouth and she stormed back over to her seat. She sat down, opened the beer and took a massive swig of it.

Kentaro laughed along with Yumiko and did the same thing, which earned the two of them a glare from my mother. But luckily from that point on, the ice had been broken between everyone and we all started drinking. Well, other than Mika who everyone soon took to teasing.

Yumiko and my mom were talking by the side while I and Kentaro were laying back while looking at the stars. Shortly after Hiro came over and Kentaro welcomed him with open arms - quite literally, as he bear-hugged the poor guy.

Rui and my sister were chatting between one another and because I was getting drunk with my self-proclaimed brother, Kentaro and my childhood friend, Hiro, I didn't see them both occasionally looking over at me before going back to chatting.

It all carried on until my mother let out a snort before laughing hysterically, causing all of us to look over at her and an incredibly red Yumiko.

My mom was slightly bent over, slapping her knee and seemingly choking for air. I smiled looking at her doing this and wondered what had happened. I looked over at Yumiko, "Yumiko, what happened? Do you plan to kill my mother through laughter or something? Hahahaha!" Kentaro, Hiro and I, in our slightly drunken states started laughing at my small joke but when after a while Yumiko didn't answer, I looked up at her.

To my surprise, she seemed to be even more red, just a few shades away from looking like she was covered in blood. She wouldn't meet eyes with me, which caused me to smirk slightly and because of my drunken state, I felt like teasing her would be a fun idea.

"Hm? Were you talking about me perhaps?" her blush spread down her neck at this point and she quickly wanted to pass it off as drunkenness, so she downed her newly opened can of beer which set my mom off on another laughter spree which both Kentaro and I followed her on.

"S-shut up, Akira!" Yumiko cutely stuck her tongue out at me before opening another beer to distract herself. I didn't see Rui glaring at the two of us, otherwise, I'd have probably laughed even harder.

The group was slowly coming together even further as we drank more. We didn't go over the top, I made sure of that as I knew what we had to deal with tomorrow, but we had fun.

This was both vital because of the fact we were probably going to be a group in the oncoming apocalypse and we needed the ice to be broken thoroughly and also because this was the last time we were gonna be able to cut loose for a while.

I looked over at Kentaro who was speaking to Hiro about food and felt I was right about my suspicion - I knew who he'd become in the future. Or more specifically, I'd see who he'd become.

And looking over at Yumiko I knew who she was as well. Looking at the two of them, I was shocked that I had the luck to run into some pretty high-grade evolvers before the apocalypse even happened.

His original plan was to build a group of him, his family and his two childhood friends and see if he could make an elite-group. There was a chance Rui and Hiro wouldn't have good evolver types but he wouldn't abandon his friends because of that.

But now that he had Kentaro and Yumiko who were above average evolvers, leaders of their own gangs in his past, he already knew he could make a first-rate gang and even push them further than their previous strengths were.

It was a risk as he didn't fully understand their personalities but he'd known them for 3 months and he'd spoken to them nearly every day, even having gone out with them on occasion. So, overall he knew that despite his intimidating appearance, Kentaro was a friendly giant and despite her gyaru appearance, Yumiko was a surprisingly pure and sincere woman. I knew they weren't hiding any darker sides as after spending years upon years around deceitful humans in the apocalypse, I developed a pretty uncanny sense for people like that.

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Plus, looking at Kentaro's sincere face as he discussed his profession with Hiro (he was a chef), and Yumiko's red face from the earlier embarrassment, I knew that they weren't twisted people. Twisted people simply don't act like this, I would know, I've killed more than a few.

Anyway, the night went on with Kentaro cooking some stuff over a fire for us and us having some lovely food to go with our beer. It was nice, really. I hadn't had such a good time for as long as I could remember.

I guess it was only fitting to have an amazing night before one of the worst days for humanity.

As everyone was falling asleep, I excused myself with a half-lie before getting up and walking to the edge of the camp. I searched around for a while, kicking leaves and dirt out of the way before I finally found a long and wide locker that had been put on its side.

I opened it up and found multiple weapons I'd brought over the months. I couldn't get anything that was intended to be a weapon because of my age but I was well-aware on how most things could be used as weapons against the undead horde.

I saw baseball bats, fire axes, crowbars, big wrenches, etc. Everything you could use to bash a Zombies head in.

*Crunch..*

I quickly spun around after I heard a crunching sound. I got into a stance and slowly stepped forward to the source of the sound. But when I found it, I let out a sigh of relief. "Rui...What are you doing over here? I thought you were a wild animal..." I let out a nervous laugh, 'I actually thought she was a Zombie...she's lucky I didn't take her head off...' thinking this, I couldn't help but sweat anxiously.

Rui was holding a can of beer and from the look of her red face, it wasn't her first either.

"Akiiii~" her slurred words came out with laughter as she tripped over to me, "What you doin' over here, Akiii~? You having a pee~?" I couldn't hold my laughter as she truly was too cute when she was trying to flirt.

She seemed annoyed at my laughter and she threw her can of beer at me, "Woah!" luckily the can was pretty much empty and my reflexes were quick, so I caught it mid-air, "Calm down, Rui!" I felt a bit annoyed at her behavior, I only laughed, what's bad about that?

At my reprimanding tone, she only pouted. I looked at her before secretly kicking the leaves back over the locker along with the dirt for some more cover. I couldn't have any of them find the stuff yet if they did they'd probably think I'm a psycho.

After hiding the locker somewhat, I walked over to Rui who was pouting still but he eyes had gone a little red and I could see tears in the corner of her eyes. I looked worriedly down at her but I paid it no mind, for the most part, she's a teenager and her hormones were probably raging. Plus the beer and she's probably a bit emotional by default.

"Ehhhh!" she let out a cute yelp as I swooped her up in a princess style carry. She was pretty drunk, so I decided to carry her back. There were a lot of tree roots sticking out of the ground, so I didn't want to risk an injury before the fateful day.

Rui didn't resist but she kept murmuring some stuff about me being a dummy and an idiot, not that I minded much as for the most part she was right. But those mutterings soon stopped when she nuzzled her head against my chest and fell asleep.

I quietly walked back into the camp but I saw my mother waiting there with a beer in hand. When she saw me carrying Rui, she smirked, "It seems my boy is becoming quite the lady-killer. First, it's Rui-chan and then I found out about Yumi-chan, don't you think you're mother will get jealous?" her light green eyes had a weird light in them as she smiled at me, her full lips spreading in a playful smile.

Seeing her flustered face, I could see that she was drunk, just like Rui. I just ignored her before saying, "You should get some sleep, mom, it's gotten pretty late..." I didn't look back and walked over to Rui's tent the had been set up ages ago.

I slipped it open and moved her into her sleeping bag, I zipped it up and gave her a pat on the head which she seemed to unconsciously enjoy.

When I exited the tent, I saw my mother still there, taking small sips from her beer with a sad expression on her face. Seeing the expression made my heart ache weirdly, so I decided to go see what was up with her.

"Mom? You okay?" my voice surprised her and I could see her try to hide her sadness behind a forced smile.

"Oh, Akira, there's nothing wrong, I just think I'm a bit tired haha~" she forced out a small laugh but I knew it was fake and I could feel the sadness behind it. This wasn't the first time this had happened, so I knew what she was thinking about - my late father.

I sat down next to her and put my arms around her subtly shaking shoulder. Not in a weird way or anything, but a supportive way, to show I was there for her.

Feeling my arm around her, her shoulders started shaking much more visibly and I pulled her into my side. She took this as I intended and leaned on my shoulder, using me as emotional support. She wrapped her own arms around me and relaxed into me.

She then went on to speak about how she wished dad was here and I couldn't help but agree with her. My dad was a great guy and I knew he'd have loved this night but obviously, I wasn't as emotional as my mother as she was already sniffling while drinking her beer.

"Calm down, mom, I'm sure dad wishes he was here as well...but he'd also wish you were happy, you know? Not crying over him," I rubbed her back as I said this and it seemed to placate her heavily.

"He'd want me to be happy...?" her voice sounded slightly disbelieving but she seemed to have had some energy injected right into her as she perked up instantly, "Hm...I guess he would wouldn't he?" she looked up at me with a bright smile.

I let out a sigh of relief at the return of her good mood, I slowly nodded at her before standing up, "Well, if you're better now, mom, I'm pretty tired so I'm gonna get some sleep now, okay?" I looked down at her before yawning for added effect.

She nodded her head before getting up herself, "I think I'm gonna do the same, Akira...and thanks for caring for your old mother when you have two beautiful women around you~" she winked at me as she covered her giggles with her hand.

I rolled my eyes before thinking I needed to fire something back. I smirked as I looked at her, "What do you mean old, mom? You're still young and beautiful, it's a son's pride to look after their wonderful mother's right?" I winked back at her before walking off leaving her a little stunned.

What I didn't see, however, was the slightly hungry look in her drunken eyes. If I had, I would've probably felt pretty scared.

Nonetheless, I went to my tent and started meditating with the technique as it was pretty much instinct by now. I knew I needed to be prepared for tomorrow so after I meditated, I went straight to sleep as I tried to ignore Kentaro's snoring.