The new routine fell into place easily. Everyone was already doing most of their new responsibilities, anyway. After a day of smelly bedrooms, the holdouts started taking care of their own chamber pots. In the morning, when the sun rose, Zaria took over the seat near the front gate. All morning and afternoon she sat in the little chair, occasionally standing to stretch her legs or drive her four foot long sharpened broom handle through something that found the faint noises coming from the house to be too attractive. When that happened, she took the time to move the completely dead corpse just far enough in the street that it would not cause a pileup blocking the gate.
There were not as many corpses shambling along their road as there had been when Zaria first arrived. Several of the former humans were killed every day when they got in the way of the gathering party or too close to the gate. Their numbers in this area were slowly being whittled away, and new ones were not moving in quickly enough to make a difference.
Yamashita-kun's idea of using walkie talkies to communicate was successful. Gu Cheng carried one unit with an earpiece attached every time they went out. The volume was turned low to be safe. Cameras were already in place in some areas, installed on previous trips. Yamashita monitored them from those cameras after they left the safety of the walls. If he saw danger, namely the giant kind that would not be swayed by their little wooden bats, he would transmit a single click to tell them to hide. If there were too many of the dead ahead of them, he would give two to tell them to stop and go another way.
If absolutely necessary, a whisper could be spoken telling them where the t-rex was waiting. It had begun to lay in wait for them on their normal routes. The road they were previously clearing had to be abandoned. Scouting missions to new areas began, new cameras placed. There was hope that the others could be retrieved someday, but it was too dangerous at that moment. The new areas being explored were just out of its range, and there were more dead to deal with. But after a couple of weeks, the numbers thinned, and things became an infinitesimal amount easier. The group was exhausted when they returned, but soon they were feeling productive once more, bags often full of finds.
Gu Cheng and Zaria talked about the giant dinosaur some nights after dinner was over, when she was busy worrying about him leaving in the morning. The places it had been spotted, waiting, were roads that they had regularly walked past on their way to the row of shops but not gone down. It knew they were more likely to be caught unawares if it came at them from the side. It felt odd, and more than a little scary, to think of a 6000kg animal as being an ambusher, skulking, and waiting for something to come along to chomp on. It was probably just their perspective. To them, it was so much bigger and faster. It definitely had the advantage if it just walked right up and opened its mouth.
They talked about how likely it was that it was already looking to expand it's territory. How many dead could still be wandering the streets it patrolled if it was eating every one it saw? Something was tickling her brain when they talked about it, something about it's sense of smell. She felt like she read as a child that they had a really great sense of smell. She mentioned it to Gu Cheng, not to worry him more, but just in case he could use the information to keep them safe.
The weather continued to get colder. The heat in the house was powered by electricity and not gas, but they wanted to lighten the burden on the solar panels, so clothes were layered inside the home as well as outside. Coats would be needed soon for those who had to venture outside, but they weren't sure if they could find any made of a material that would be quiet enough while moving down the silent streets. Talks were had about checking out some clothing shops, but nobody was sure if there would even be any coats left in any stores to make it worth the trip. When the infection first hit, it was already spring, and most shops were down to light jackets. It was a problem that nobody had thought about enough to find a solution for, yet.
It might be possible, Saito-san offered, to get through the winter without needing to go out at all. She did not bother to explain that fewer mouths to feed would make whatever they could scavenge in the following weeks stretch farther. Their losses were still too recent in their minds. If they stayed inside, though, and if the winter stretched out too long or something else happened, they would be in trouble. The discussion went nowhere, but at least they were all aware and thinking about the problem afterward.
Zaria stretched her arms toward the sky, rising with the motion to stand in front of her chair that rested two meters back from the gate. Beside her, Gu Cheng sat upright in his own chair, his eyes trained on the street through the bars while she was just that little bit closer to them than she had been before.
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For the first week of the new system, while the gatherers were resting and he had nothing else to do, Zaria accepted his companionship silently. When the gathering trips began again, she objected. She didn't like that he came back from risking his life in such a dangerous situation and then refused to rest inside upon his return. His method of arguing about it was to pretend he didn't understand her words and sit down in the chair he brought out with him. It was not worth the energy to fight him over it, so she let him be. She knew she would do the same if their positions were reversed. Plus, it gave them more time together without the ambiguous atmosphere of the bedroom being around them.
Gu Cheng had made no moves toward being more physical in their relationship. In fact, even the kisses were almost chaste. Mostly, they just held each other while they slept, and sometimes they casually touched when they were close. A hand on an arm, two knees pressed against each other below the dining table. As much as her brain imagined much more passionate scenarios, the comfort and reassurance she was receiving was enough for the moment. The first couple of nights, she woke up, panicking on the soft bed. Half asleep, Gu Cheng rolled over and wrapped his arms around her shaking body. His familiar smell calmed her, letting her know she was not back in that room and the metal shackles were gone.
After a few back twists, Zaria sat in her cushioned, straight back chair again, pulling her phone from the side pocket of her cargo pants. She opened a fantasy role playing game and waggled the phone, screen out, toward Gu Cheng. His lips lifted just a little, and he joined her using his phone. File sharing between their phones due to them being the same model and possessing proximity based networks had opened up new modes of entertainment.
Before leaving City C, Zaria spent time downloading any game that looked interesting and did not need internet interaction, figuring that she could always uninstall them later if they were just a waste of space. Some of the original games had already been deleted. A few were interesting enough that while she was still sleeping alone, she took a few minutes here and there alone in that front room to work on levels. It was a harmless way to pass the long evenings.
After a few days sitting out at the gate with the serious man, she offered to share her phone with him so that he could entertain himself. She didn't mind the idea of watching him play. Gu Cheng could be standing still, and he would still be captivating.
Gu Cheng suggested an even better solution to boredom and explained about file sharing using the proximity system. Soon, they were able to play together as long as they were close enough. It was too dangerous to turn on the sound, but together, they spent many an afternoon playing games.
Their new activity let Zaria see a side to the cold faced man that she had not imagined. As expected, he took almost no time at all to learn the rules of the games and how to play them. Blasted trope world. What surprised her was the youthful focus he gave the games. It did not appear to her that he was humoring her. He seemed to enjoy the games.
Without the pendant, she could not read the dialogue, but just blasting the bosses with her magic powers while Gu Cheng fought beside her using his assassin's daggers in their favorite rpg was fun enough. They were just approaching the final boss in their current dungeon, a creature with the head of a wolf and 8 smooth spider-like legs, when a strange noise drew their attention.
Outside the gate, across the street near the entrance to a small multi family house, something was hovering in the air. It looked like smoke, but there was no fire and nothing that could be creating it. Zaria stood up from her chair, stepping closer to the gate and squinting her eyes. As she watched, a shape began to form in the smoke. A large, bear like head and body appeared, followed by yellow, glowing eyes.
"What is that?" Gu Cheng whispered.
Whether it was the sound of his voice on an otherwise silent street or the quiet noise that his sword made as it pulled clear of his scabbard, the familiar creature looked directly at them. A low, throaty growl carried across the expanse of pavement. Zaria raised her broom handle pole in front of her and stepped in front of him. "Something that you can't hurt," she whispered back.
The creature slunk toward them, body of swirling smoke sliding silently closer. Its haunches tensed, and it propelled itself forward, passing through the metal bars as though they did not exist. Just as it did that first night, back at the restaurant, her improvised sword passed through the head of the creature and hit the ground below. It shook its insubstantial ruff and let out another growl.
A crack and a crash split the air. The iron gate fell inward, hitting the walkway with a bang. Through the misty form of the hulking beast, something stepped into the yard. A sword made of flame slashed through the bear like head, and it fell to the ground, moving no more. Behind it, a sticky voice called out, "You can faint now."
Zaria dropped her pole with a bang. "You," she swore, stepping through the smoke creature and pointing her finger at the tall, robed, irritatingly familiar figure.
Stunned, silver eyes blinked out from beneath shaggy cyan hair.
"Oh, shit," the mage said, and then turned and ran.