(I'm telling ya, sleepiness, It's contagious…)

I glanced behind me as I kept driving, all three girls, fast asleep. It was not that late to be honest, must have been what, a little after noon?

( I guess they were all really tired deep down. And now that we are 'safe', considering our situation. It rushed up to them…)

"But now, I have nobody to speak too…" I groan silently as I rest my head on the seat's headrest…

(The 'peeping duo' has also given up glancing our way, and are now staring at some poor girl in the truck. Guess I ain't smexy enough for them…)

"Still want to sssstabby stab them though." I 'hiss' in a low tone before silently chuckling, so I wouldn't wake up our 'sleeping beauties'.

(Still, I wonder how we will pass the bridge that connects to the next landmass that leads to the airport. Based on the map, the man-made island that the airport is located on is at the leftmost landmass. The same one that had our school, and my apartment. Huh, talk about going full circle.)

Also, by having the two giant ass trucks in front of me now, I have yet to see a single 'walking' corpse so far…

(Still, if Rika is at the airport, I wonder if I can meet her. Jokes aside, I owe her for the guns and car. Huh, good thing the girls didn't ask how I knew that Shizuka's 'friend' was at the airport. As when she spoke with her in the estate right before the blast, I was with the Humvee, not the group…)

We were also already riverside, with the river to our left. As the mansion itself was already relatively close to the landmass's end. I could also see the targeted bridge in the distance. It's just that, we had to take a couple of side trips to avoid a couple of no-go roads. Other than that, smooth sailing. To the point that I was honestly starting to doze off myself…

At least, until I noticed the truck in front of me opening its hazards lights. It then slowly slowed down, coming to a full stop after a couple of seconds, with me stopping the Humvee behind it. The driver then opened the door, and after a quick glance outside, he jumped down the truck and ran towards my car. I, in the meantime, open the door slightly.

"The Major General wants to use some of your dynamites to clear an infected horde up ahead." The second lieutenant glances at the sleeping girls as he stops by my door.

"Give me a second…" I close the door and get off my seat, then go to the back seats, sort of ending up on top of a sleeping Saeko. I then grab two sticks of dynamite while being careful to not actually step on the sleeping girl. Then, I back off and head back to my seat. The soldier still staring at the sleeping girls.

"You're staring at the wrong 'dynamites'." I say as I open the door and extend my arm towards the soldier, dynamites in hand. The guy turns to look at the two sticks, and frowns.

"We are going to need more than two." He responds.

"You can deal with a horde by using just one." I also responded.

"And if we find another horde, we will have to stop and come to your car again. If you want to come with us, then you have to follow the orders given to you." The soldier answers back.

"First. You will have to stop either case if you find another horde, or you risk blowing yourself up if you make a crap throw from inside the truck. Second, we are coming 'with' you, not 'under' you. I am willing to help you get there, but I'm not going to give you everything I have just because you want me to. If we have a problem with that, we can head to the airport by ourselves. If you want me to follow your orders like a good 'civilian'. Then first, get rid of the corpses that are putting us 'civilians' in danger, without my help." I wiggle the dynamites at him as I speak. The soldier scowls slightly and takes the dynamites.

"I will let the General know of what you think." He responds as he turns to leave.

(Bite me.)

I closed the door as I kept looking at the soldier, who climbed up the truck, opened the door, and started speaking to somebody inside without getting inside. I guess the General was in there with him? After a couple of seconds, the soldier climbs back down, throws a glance towards my general direction, then turns to run towards the first truck, disappearing from view by going in front of the first truck …

"Hope they don't blow their own shit up…" I glance through the window to my left as I rest my hands on the steering wheel.

"Wait. If they'll use dynamite now, won't that fr…" Just as I say that and turn towards the sleeping girls, a loud explosion echoed…

"W,whath's goig on?!" Saya almost instantly springs into a sitting position, though, her eyes were still half-closed. And judging from her 'wording'. I don't think she was actually 'awake', as much as being it reflexes that got her up.

"Soldiers are clearing the road ahead, nothing to worry about." I respond as I glance at the other two girls…

(They didn't even budge, I'd understand if Hitomi was out cold, but Saeko too? She must have been really tired…)

"Huuumm…" Was all Saya said as she rubbed her eyes with one hand, yawning in the process.

"How far are we?" She asks as she finally opens her eyes, tapping around her seat with her hand for her glasses.

"I can see the bridge, that's about it…" I respond as I turn to look at Saya.

(I don't know if it's her sleepy face, or her overall 'I'm half asleep' posture. But ugghh, I want to head rub a pinkette.)

Just as Saya picks up her glasses, I turn around to see the trucks had started to move.

"Also. A soldier needs to get ssstaby stabbed." I add with a slight chuckle as I start driving.

"Uhh, what?" Saya asks as she slowly moves from her seat to get to the front seat next to me.

"Nothing…" I respond as I glance at Saya. Who was probably still getting her bearings together, as she didn't bother asking anything else.

"Ahhh, I feel so damn sore, why did I fall asleep with my twintails, my head hurts now…" Saya groans as she puts her hands on the roof and stretches by arching her back forward…

(...Focus, on, the, road…)

Not gonna deny though, I did throw a couple of glances at Saya. And, guess who else darted his head towards Saya while making a half retarded 'Ohh' with his mouth. Yea, one of the two 'bros' was pretty much drooling now…

(Of course…)

"Uhh, Saya. I don't mean to interrupt your stretching. But you got yourself a, 'fan'..." I keep staring at the guy as I speak. While Saya just turned me with a question expression as she undoed her twintails…

"Pervert…" She responds with a slight pout after a few seconds, her face taking a slight shade of red…

"Uhh, yea, no. Look straight ahead, drooling dude in the truck." I answer as I point towards the guy with my head…

"Huh?" Saya tilts her head as she narrows her eyes, then turns to look ahead. The moment she locked eyes with the guy, he started 'hopping' his eyebrows up and down…

(Is he supposed to be flirting now? Because he looks so ridiculous that I might actually laugh. Then stab his guts...)

Saya on the other hand, did not seem to share the same mentality, as she frowned while leaning slightly forward, folding her arms. She then stuck out her tongue at the guy…

(...What are you, Seven?)

She then gets off her seat and crawls up next to me, before wrapping her arms around my right arm, grinding her cheek against my shoulder as she turned to the guy with what I think was a smirk? Then stuck her tongue out again…

(Ok, she must definitely be half asleep...)

The guy puts both hands on his cheeks and makes another 'Ohh' motion with his mouth as he lifts both eyebrows. He then points at himself, then at Saya, then at me, then makes a 'three' sign with his fingers as he starts hopping his eyebrows again…

(Did he just? Ok, you what chad-bro? Want a three-way? I'll give you fucking three-way…)

I lift my free hand and point at myself, then at Saya, then behind me towards Saeko, and also make a 'three' sign with my finger. The guy slaps his hands to his cheeks again and makes an even more exaggerated 'Ohh' with his mouth. He then closes his eyes and makes an 'ok' sign with each hand while keeping them close to his face, lifting his head slightly as if he's smelling something. Before doing a double thumbs-up…

(And, did I just accidentally join the Chad-bro club? Well, shi...)

My thoughts got cut short as I felt something slap me in the back of my head. Turning to my right, I find Saya staring at me with a blushing pout.

"Yea, that was a bit too 'jock' of me. My bad..." I respond as I tilt my head.

"Mhm, I hate people that try to show me off to others like I'm some sort of prize they caught. So don't do that…" Saya nods as she nuzzles her face against my shoulder and closes her eyes. Then fixes her posture as, there is a shifter between me and her after all…

So, with that 'over'. We continued forward, the bridge becoming bigger by the second. Until, we were one intersection away from it…

(Are we going to dynamite our way through the bridge? Actually, won't the bridge be clogged with cars? Or be barricaded?...)

All these questions got answered the moment we took the next turn, the giant bridge coming into full view. Four lanes that were for traffic going the same direction as us, and four lanes for oncoming traffic, with a big gap between the eight total lanes.

Now 'our' lanes, where a definite no go zone. I could not even see the road between all the abandoned cars, add that I could see corpses roaming between them. The 'oncoming' lanes on the other hand, were pretty much empty. Though, they did have five cop cars, two 'S.A.T' vans that looked like less 'blocky' Lenco Bears, and some crowd safety barriers that blocked the road.

The trucks once again stopped, and this time, all of the soldiers climbed down. And almost instantly opened fire at the nearby corpses…

"They better know what they're doing…" I whisper to myself as I look at the corpses on the bridge that turned stare towards our direction before they started to 'walk' towards us. Though most of them just ended up bumping from one car into another car.

One of the soldiers then turned to me and waved his arm.

(Huh, guess I'm not a civilian that needs protecting now?)

I nudge Saya as I open the door, who responds by tightening her grip on my arm with a soft groan.

"Oi, I got to exit the car." I poke her cheek as I try to move again, she just replies with a groan again…

(Ok you asked for it.)

I place my hand to her side, and squeeze.

"Yiiaaw!" Saya almost instantly darts her eyes wide open as she bends sideways to cover her sides with her elbow.

"Got to exit the car Saya." I say once again.

"You didn't have to jab me you idiot!" Saya whines with a rather loud voice as she massages the point I squeezed, letting go of me at the same time.

"You wouldn't let me go, and it looks like that mister army man over there is trying really hard to recruit me for the greater cause." I respond with a slight chuckle as I exit the car and close the door. Bag in hand.

As I start walking towards the soldiers, I turn around to see the corpses that were now walking towards the Humvee, probably attracted by Saya's yelp.

"Oi deepshits! Change direction!" I shout as I turn around again to walk towards the soldiers while tightening the bag on my back. Giving one last glance behind me seconds later to make sure that the corpses had indeed changed direction.

The moment I got close to the soldiers, the M. General turned to me.

"You are armed, if you are not willing to give your weapons, then you will help us." He pretty much declares before turning towards the car barricade in the distance.

"We will pull the hand brakes from the three cop cars and one van, then push them out the road. The vans might be functional, but we don't have time to look for the keys, we have panicking civilians in the trucks. So focus on clearing the roadblock." The M. General then turns to the other soldiers.

(Panicking? As in trying to get into threesomes with strangers?)

"If they are locked, shoot the windows. You need to have been done yesterday, move out." He then motions with his hand before walking back towards the truck he was in.

(Not going to join the fun boss man?)

I chuckle softly as I follow the soldiers who carved a path towards the roadblock. And once there, one of them with the rank of private turned to me.

"Check the S.A.T van, these usually have bulletproof windows, so if it's locked don't shoot it." The private says as he points to my right.

(Now I'm taking orders from a friggin private?...)

I head to the van nonetheless, and after quickly checking under it, I try the front door. Which opened wide...

(Nice~)

I climb in the car, and after checking the interior, I pull the handbrake.

(Done, and done.)

As I was about to exit the van, I noticed that the back of the van had equipment hanging on its walls. Vests, helmets, arm guards, belts, handcuffs, ammo pouches.

(Hmm?)

I tilt my head and move past the two front seats, stopping in the middle of the van.

(Black advanced combat helmets…)

I take one helmet and look at it.

(My mask covers my face up to my forehead...)

I wear the helmet along with my mask and move my head…

(Too small.)

I toss the helmet to the side and try another, bigger one…

(Hmm, much better.)

I then strap the helmet by passing the chinstrap under the mask.

(Thank god I'm tolerant of wearing these things, for all the good they can do, they are uncomfortable as fuck. Or well, the ones from my world where. Then again, these looked much older than the ones here…)

I then look at the rest of the equipment…

(I don't really need anything else, my arm and leg guards are of pretty good quality. Or, you know what? Fuck it.)

I take off and open my bag, then start tossing stuff inside, handcuffs, googles, arm and leg guards, ammo pouches, belts. All the good stuff…

And once I was done looting the ever-living shit out of that van, I strap my bag on me and exit from the same way I entered. The moment I got out, I saw that the soldiers had already moved two of the cop cars out of the way and had them lined up next to the bridge wall. Two soldiers were now working on moving the third one out of the way, with the other two keeping guard. Well I say they lined them up, but it was more like they just pushed em while turning them slightly, so they wouldn't end up head straight into the wall.

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"This is unlocked too." I say as I walk towards them. The soldiers turning to look at me for a couple of seconds.

"Heh, you sure you don't want to join us up? You already seem to have the correct getup. Just slap some camo paint on that baby and you're golden." One of the soldiers snickers as he looks at me.

"And have to constantly follow orders? Sleep five to four hours while spending the rest of my waking time on guard watch or cleaning floors. I don't think so. And there's no way I'm ruining some good ol black clothes by slapping camo paint on them." I respond as I glance around for any corpses with a slight smirk, before looking back at the soldier who spoke up.

"You two, stop talking, move the cars." The second lieutenant commands in an annoyed tone.

(Uhh, as much as I want to cringe. He's right, wasting time here is not good.)

"Let's move this riot van then, with the cars you have already moved. The trucks should be able to pass after we get this out of the way." I point behind me at the van I just exited.

"Somebody get to the wheel, the rest, push the van." The second lieutenant commands again. I nod slightly and turn around. And being closer to the van than the rest, I reached the driver's seat first.

(Not really in the mood to push.)

I glanced at the car's ignition switch as I entered, just to make sure that the keys were not there. A few seconds later, three soldiers walked past the now closed door and towards the back of the van. The second lieutenant stayed back in his spot, looking at the truck. And slowly, the van started to roll.

(Ok, let's see, the road to my right is a slight downhill, as the bridge is a bit taller than the road, soo..)

I turned to the right, the van turning to face the road that led to the trucks and Humvee as it started to pick up speed. I also heard something 'slapping' the back of the truck as it started to roll down the road…

(Next, get it out of the way…)

I casually turn the car to the left. And drive it right into an abandoned sedan. While obviously not having enough force to do any actual damage, I got jerked forward nonetheless.

"Pfft, heheh…" I open the door with a slight chuckle and look around before jumping down. Several corpses dragging their feet towards me, not that I'm surprised. This thing was heavy, so even at low speeds it was able to make quite the audible crash.

"You just had to be loud. Move back to the trucks! We're moving out!" The second lieutenant shouts as he jogs past me, waving his arm to the soldiers behind him.

"I had a giant armored van, smashing it into something was the natural course of action." I say to pretty much myself as I start running towards the Humvee. And the moment I reached it, I opened the front door and entered the car.

"Ok, we should be able to pass the bridge, or at least this part of it." I say as I close the door, then turn to Saya. Only to find her staring at me with her mouth half-open, an 'Oh hell no' expression written on her face.

"What?" I ask as I tilt my head.

"You left for three minutes, and now you have even more stuff covering your damn head…" She answers as she frowns.

"Hey, corpses can't bite through this." I give a light knock on the helmet as I start driving behind the second truck.

"Hum, with how thick-skulled you are, the corpses would probably fail to bite past the bone even without the helmet." Saya huffs as she folds her arms with a slight pout.

"They don't need to bite past bone to infect though, I'd still turn into a shambling corpse if that happened." I respond as I glance at her without turning my head away from the road, driving past the now open barricade. Saya, just looked at me for a couple of seconds.

"Must you take the fun out of everything?" She sighs.

"Uhh, so having a corpse biting my head is 'Fun'?" I ask as I tilt my head.

"I, I didn't say that." Saya stutters as she frowns.

"Huh, Saya kinda sus. I'm thinking of keeping my headgear on from now on in safe zones as well." I answer with a slight chuckle. But, judging from how Saya narrowed her eyes and frowned even more as she leaned towards me. I'd say she was not very amused.

"You're an idiot." An original statement from Saya.

"The nerdiest one apparently." I 'answer' as I chuckle.

Just as Saya opens her mouth to speak again, her stomach grumbled. Causing her to blush and back away.

"Ughh, stupid timing. Eating snacks for breakfast is not breakfast..." She whines as she looks away.

"Hey, I lived on snacks before the outbreak for quite some time, your statement is null." I say as I glance to my left, looking at the river under the bridge that extended for what seemed to be an infinite distance.

"Hum, so you were an idiot before the outbreak too. Eating snacks as 'normal' food is not good for you." Saya folds her arms and turns to me with a rather serious expression.

(Well, if I knew that I would end up 'here' with you and Saeko by my side? I would have focused on taking better care of myself...)

"Hah, got nothing to say back?" Saya smirks as she leans towards me, her arms still folded under her chest as she narrowed her eyes.

"Vinegar potato chips are awesome." I answer bluntly. Saya blinks at me for a couple of seconds, before wincing slightly.

"Eww, how can you like that? They're too sour, they're horrible." Saya backs off and turns her hand into a fist before placing her knuckles on her lips.

"Hey, if you don't like them, that's all the better. You won't steal them, so more for me." I respond with a chuckle. And Saya's stomach, grumbled again.

"Ughh, if I'm getting a response like this just by talking about vinegar chips of all things, I must be really hungry..." Saya places her hand on her stomach as she lifts her shoulders slightly while she keeps looking away.

"Then get something to eat, it's not like we don't have any food." And just as I say that, we reached the end of the bridge, the trucks slowing down again.

This side of the bridge was a bit more 'populated' compared to the other side. The reason being, it didn't have an actual barricade on this side.

"Huh, they must have been stretched really thin if they really didn't cover both sides of the bridge." I say in a low tone as I keep looking ahead, the trucks slowly starting to move again.

While in the meantime, Saya crawled back to the back seats to get her bag. And after some shuffling, I heard plastic ripping, and then crunching.

(Guess she had something to eat in her bag?)

As we reach the bottom of the bridge, we turn to the right, the trucks in front of me paving a path through the corpses that were strolling about in the middle of the road…

(Next target, the airport.)

"Hey, want some?" Saya asks as she brings her hand next to my face to my right, an energy bar in it.

"No can do, mask." I respond.

"Then take it off you idiot." Saya answers with a slight groan.

"Hah, nice try." I answer back with a chuckle.

"Hum, your loss." She says as she pulls her hand back.

With that, we continued in silence, if you don't count Saya's energy bar 'genocide'. It was also not too long after, when we started to zigzag around roads, as the streets started to get worse by every intersection we passed..

"Hmm, the roads around here look pretty wrecked…" I speak up as I take a left turn while following the front truck.

"A lot of people would have rushed towards the airport when the whole thing started. I'm honestly surprised that the roads are even 'this' drivable." Saya responds.

"I just hope that our dear camo tooting friends know where the heck they're going." I say as I glance at the buildings around us.

(Shops, shops and more shops. We actually stopped being in a 'residential' area the moment we passed that bridge, but the shops around here look like they had been picked clean by a 'setav carry weight 9000' lone survivor. All of em seem empty inside, and whatever glass window or wall existed, is long gone. The roads around ain't looking much better, reason why we keep zig-zagging on almost every intersection...)

And just as we kept driving forward, I heard a 'new' soft moan from the back seats.

(Hmm? One of the sleeping princesses got up?)

I turn to look to my right, only to see a pair of legs stretching from between the back seats, all the way to the front, next to me. The legs leading up to a purple-haired girl that had one arm over her shoulder and to her back. The other stretching towards the roof. She then let out another soft moan with her eyes tightly shut.

(...Focus on the road Naier…)

Without staring for too long at Saeko, I turn to look back towards the street.

"You, would be one horrible lookout." Saya speaks up with a slight huff. Saeko just responded with yet another soft moan, her legs retracting towards the back seats. And after a few seconds, I heard shuffling.

"Horrible, what?" I hear Saeko ask with a sleepy voice.

"Lookout. Guard. Watch." Saya responds with the same huff.

"You and Hitomi slept through literal explosions." She adds as we take what must have been the millionth turn on the road.

"Ex,plosions? Did, something happen?" Saeko asks as her voice quickly loses its sleepy tone.

"No, the soldiers just used some of our dynamites to clear some corpses that were in the way. Nothing happened." Saya responds with a flat tone.

"Oh, I see. How, far have we gotten since I fell asleep?" Saeko asks again.

"Quite far to be honest, we managed to reach the landmass with the…" I stop talking as we take another turn to the right.

"Airport." Saeko adds after me.

"Yea." I continue.

"No, Naier look. Ahead in the distance, that building looks like an airport tower." Saeko leans between the two front seats as she points ahead. And, she was right. Up in the distance, I could see a tower.

"Oh? You're right. I do see a tower in the distance now. We must be closing in to the airport." I say with a slight nod.

"And umm. If you don't mind me asking. What are you wearing?" Saeko then asks. Turning my head to glance to my right, I find her staring at me.

"The helmet?" I 'ask' as I give it a light tap. Saeko nodded back in response.

"Found it inside a S.A.T. van while clearing a barricade at the bridge." I answer.

"I'm already armored up like a lobster Saeko, should you really be surprised with 'this'?" I 'ask' as I glance at her. Saeko brings her hand to her mouth and lets out a small giggle.

"I guess not. It does seem to be like something that you would wear. " She responds with a smile. Then moves to the empty front passenger's seat.

"Hitomi's still asleep?" I ask.

"Yea, want me to wake her up?" Saya responds.

"No, let her sleep. Until we reach the base by the airport the soldiers spoke of at least." I answer.

"Wonder how far it is from here." Saeko speaks up next as she stares at the tower in the distance.

"As weird as it sounds, don't think it's far. The trucks in the front seem to be doing a pretty good job of running over small groups of corpses that would otherwise block us. Only real thing hindering us is abandoned cars." I respond.

"Uhh, let me check something." Saya then starts shuffling about in the back seats.

"Check something?" I ask.

"The map." She responds with a flat tone. And after a few minutes of silence…

"Hmm. I see…" Saya speaks up again.

"We should actually reach the airport much faster compared to how much time it took us to get from the house to the mansion. As the landmass we're on now is much 'shorter' compared to the central one." Saya continuous speaking.

"Explains why the tower seems to be this close." I say with a slight nod.

And soon, I saw another 'sign' which showed that we were closing in to a 'populated' area. An increase in corpses, not that the two trucks in front of me seemed to mind. What with them sending everything flying to the left and right.

"Naier. I have been wondering, what are you going to do after we get there?" Saeko then speaks up, causing me to glance at her.

"Don't really know yet. Probably act according to circumstances." I respond.

"Huh, like?" Saya asks from behind my seat.

"Well, for example. If they have already taken the airport back and are extracting people. I will check if we can get extracted to the same location that the third elementary school got sent to. Or check whether they know that a bunch of crazy mercenaries are blasting holes in their safe zones. Maybe I will see if I get us a better spot as payment for well, helping these guys. So, as I said, act according to circumstances." I answer as I tilt my head.

"I see…" Saya responds nonchalantly.

With that, we then kept going straight for two intersections, before the first truck took a turn to the left. And as the second truck and I followed suit, we found ourselves coming to an abrupt halt.

"Huh, why did we stop?" Saya asks as she pops between the two front seats.

"This." I respond as I point ahead…

A tall blue metal fence was up ahead, the top of it having a catwalk for a person to walk on, along with two giant searchlights on that catwalk. In the center, a giant hole. A metal fence that should have been where the hole is was a little further in on the ground. And, a crapton of dead corpses inside, as in, Dead dead. Piles of them, most of them smoking like they have been burned.

Deeper inside, I could see another fence like the one that was near us, except this one looked closed, and more importantly.

"There are people on the catwalk in the distance. I think…" I say as I focus my sight towards the second fence in the distance…

"I see them too." Saeko responds.

"Are they…" Before Saya could finish, one of the trucks flashes its headlights, and seconds later, one of the searchlights on the distant fence flickers on and off.

"Normal people." I say with a small nod.

"That gate is too small for the truck to pass." I add as I tilt my head, only to see one of the soldiers jumping out of the truck and running to the nearby gate, undoing the locks and folding the remaining part of the gate, allowing the two trucks to pass.

After both trucks drove though, the soldier came up to me and motioned me to stop. He then climbed on the Humvee, his legs hanging by the window that Saya was next to.

"With all these corpses chilling on the floor, I'm not surprised he does not walk to walk his way to the second fence." I turn to look through Saya's window at the soldier who was now sitting on our roof, Saya herself staring at her window as well...

And the moment the trucks reached the second fence, two soldiers from the other side of the fence quickly opened it up, and motioned us to move inside.

"Well, holy shiet, the place is actually not overrun…" I say in a low tone as we slowly went through the second fence.

The bridge that connected to the airport was to my right, a metal fence like the one we just passed through a little deeper into the bridge itself. Ahead of me, after a wide road that seemed to be a highway, was a giant building. But most importantly, in front of it was a giant yard, that was plainly put, overcrowded. Military cars driving about, disappearing behind the giant building through the narrow roads that it had on each side, soldiers running in formation, tents with people in civilian clothes. Overall, a lot of things, a lot of 'noisy' things. Which explains why to my left, where the highway extended, was one giant metal fence that extended from one side of the road to the other, in total being about double in size compared to the one we just used. On our side of the fence, four soldiers with flamethrowers, on the other. A corpse barbeque party.

(Hmm, nice thinking, corpses are rather flammable if we go by how they turned into torches in that crashed bus when we fled the school. Light up one in a horde that has clogged together, the rest will follow.)

Just as we got close to the front yard, the truck stopped. The soldier then jumped off my car, and after giving the hood a quick slap, he turned to me and made a thumbs-up motion.

"Well, we made it. 'Civilization'. Yiepe ke fucking yey." I say with a half-joking manner as I point with my full hand at what I think was a drill instructor that was overlooking a bunch of exercising soldiers. ut hey, at least he was not shouting how useless they are…

Then, the soldiers from 'my' team got out of their trucks and quickly gathered up in formation next to the first truck…

"Hmm? That was fast, they have a general here or smithi…" I stopped mid-sentence as I noticed the people they saluted. One, sure enough, looked like a high ranking official, a clean ironed suit with several badges, no helmet or beret on his head. And trust me, in the army, you don't take off these things unless you're eating or are outside in civilian clothes. Or are too high in rank to be affected by rules. But ohhh no, that was not what made me stop talking. That, was because of the person standing next to him…

And, I just kept staring at that person. Until the soldiers, with a final salute, turned to leave with a quick pace...

"Saya…" I spoke up again as I kept looking at the man.

"What?" Saya asks nonchalantly…

"Does your father know any high ranking officials?" I ask again.

"Huh, what are you talking about?" She asks as she leans between the two front seats.

"Well, he seems pretty comfortable standing next to that guy, he even makes the poor general look like a dwarf in comparison to him…" I respond as I point at the tall, imposing figure that was standing next to the general.

Saya looks at me, her eyes going slightly wide before she pushes her glasses with her fingers, quickly turning to look through the windshield…

"P...PAPA?!" She then shouts, nearly bursting my eardrum.

I didn't even realize how fast she opened her door, jumping outside and making a full sprint towards the tall man. Who indeed was, Souichiro.

"PAPA!" I hear Saya shout once again as I exit the car, Souichiro also having turned to look at the shouting piknette by now. And, holy crap, this must be the first time I've actually seen the guy being wide-eyed.

With the door still open, I climb up to the Humvee's roof, sitting by the corner and resting one leg on the open door.

"Well, that certainly was a pleasant turn of events amongst the shit we've been pulling. " I say with a slight smile as I looked at Saya, who was now pretty much stuck on her dad, who had his hand on her head. And as Saeko exited the car from her door and came over to my side.

"This is indeed a nice turn of events." She spoke up as she leaned her back on the doorframe to my left.

"In more ways than one." I add with a nod.

"We might be able to have a better bargaining position if Saya's parents are on our side, and they have a connection with the high ranks." I add up.

"Ohh, scheming something already?" Saeko asks as she turns to look at me with a slight smirk and an arched eyebrow.

"Me? Scheming? What makes you think I would ever do such a thing?" I answer with a chuckle as I tilt my head.

"Hmm? Just a hunch." Saeko responds as her smirk turns into a one-sided smile.

"Actually, would you do me a favor and wake up Hitomi?" I ask as I turn to look at Saeko. She responds with a nod before turning to open the back door and crawling inside…

After Saeko disappeared into the car, I let out a sigh and closed my eyes. Then stretched out for a few seconds...

"Ohh? That's one nice car you got there commando." And, I heard a new voice speak up as I stretched.

Opening my eyes, I spot a woman looking at the Humvee. Purple hair, tanned body, eyes a light shade of red. Wearing black combat overalls that she had left unbuttoned on the chest region, a white shirt underneath. One hand next to her face, a cigar between its fingers. Yea, it was pretty obvious who this woman was…

(Well shiet. Rika Minami in the flesh. Do the surprises ever stop?)

I tracked her eyes, to see that she was looking at the Humvee's license plate, before she looked back at me.

(She was looking at the license plate, she knows this is her car.)

"Yea, can't count how many times this little monster saved me and my group." I respond as I tap the car lightly with my hand.

"Hah, I can imagine. You must be glad you made that purchase now eh?" She responds as she takes a puff from her cigarette.

(Purchase? Do I look that old? Then again. She can't see my face to make out my age. And as a foreigner, I am relatively 'larger' than the common Japanese man. Though, I would suspect my Japanese pronunciation must be as good as a drunk Uk man speaking American English.)

"Ahh, no purchase. The car's not mine." I respond as I tilt my head. Causing Rika to arch an eyebrow as her lips curved to a very slight one-sided smirk.

"Ohh? And who does it belong to?" She asks as she places her cigarette on her lips.

"I don't know to be honest. A friend of a friend." I answer.

"From one of the two that are inside the car?" Rika asks as she glances through the windshield.

"No, she's not with our group anymore." As I answer, I see Rika's smile slowly disappear.

(Oh shit, wrong wording.)

"She and the other half of my group got already extracted. Third elementary school, a couple of days ago. They were the ones that informed us of the next extraction point. That, turned out to be a dud, so we ended up here instead." I continued speaking, Rika stayed quiet.

"She is, or was the nurse in my school. Kind of an airhead for her age to be honest. But she got us to the house where she and her friend stayed, that's where we found this car and the guns we used for some time…" I add as I bring my hand to the back of my neck.

"Heh, to put it plainly. We owe her and her friend, one giant fucking favor. Pardon my french." I add up as I keep looking at Rika.

"I've heard worse." Rika answers as she stares at me with a rather intense stare.

"Marikawa." She then speaks up, her stare still fixated on me.

(Oh? She's testing me?)

"Uhh, Shizuka?" I respond as I tilt my head slightly. And Rika's expression instantly turned a lot more 'mellow' after hearing my answer. Giving me a slight nod. afterward.

"I hope we're not interrupting anything." A new voice speaks up. Turning my head to it, I see Saya's mother, who walked up to us along with the big scary dad and pinkette herself.

"Mister and miss Takagi, good to see that you're all still well." I respond as I turn to them.

"And no, not really. Just speaking with the person who we pretty much owe our lives to." I continue speaking, Saya arching her eyebrow as she glances at Rika, then looking back at me, frowning slightly as she narrows her eyes.

(Oh, oh. Tsundere alert.)

"I'll take it that, from that little 'Test' you just put me through. You are Shizuka's mystery friend?" I 'ask' as I turn to Rika, Saya blinking at me like a fish before looking back at Rika herself.

"Rika Minami. Pleased to meet you, commando." She responds with a smile as she brings her free hand to her forehead for a very lax salute.

"Naier Sepfier." I respond with a slight not. Rika looks at me for a couple of seconds, then brings her index finger to her lips, tapping it a couple of times.

"Ninja penguin." Rika blurts out…

(...Really? Really now?…)

I just, stared. Rika on the other hand laughed through her nose and closed her eyes before looking back at me.

"When I spoke with Shizuka on the phone before the E.M.P.. She seemed to have trouble pronouncing one certain Naier, Sepfafiry. She must have told me your name so many times that I ended up memorizing it. Plus in the end, she told me that your name is Ninja penguin instead." Rika adds with a slight chuckle…

"That's. Honestly a very Shizuka thing to do to…" I respond as I let out a slight sigh.

"Hey you! You have to move with the rest of the civilians!" One of the soldiers from this 'installation' shouts as he walks up to us.

"It's alright, the people in this car are part of my group, I will deal with them." Souichiro pretty much commands as he turns to the soldier, who just nodded a couple of times and turned to quickly leave.

"After all, I'd like to know why you seem to be, missing a couple of people since the last time we spoke." Souichiro then turns his 'stare glare' to me…

(Oh boy…)