“I think we’ll rest here for today.”

As night quickly fell on the group, Kara declared a stop to their journey as her bike screeched to a halt, and she quickly got to work setting up a fire and a tent for her to sleep in.

“Sorry, I only have one. But you guys can handle it, right?” she remarked as she finished her accommodation in a flash and dove inside.

“…”

Meanwhile, the other three, who were not tired at all, just stood in silence and watched her make herself comfortable inside the tent before her head popped out of the flap.

“Come on, rest. I know I need it.”

“…”

Reluctantly, they all decided to follow her and sat down in a circle around the fire, and she beamed.

“This is nice.”

“Yeah, that’s all well and good, but where exactly are we going? You haven’t told us anything,” Anten, who had deliberately distanced herself from the rest of the group, impatiently retorted.

Kara looked at her for a second before she placed a finger to her lips and winked mischievously.

“It’s, a, secret!”

“I’m going back.”

“Ok, ok!” she quickly backtracked before focusing her attention on Dauma, “Mister Dau, remember when you told me about the mysterious guy who attacked the village, and what the Gas Masks told you?”

“Y-yes.”

“Well, I happen to know who you’re talking about.”

“Wait, really?”

“Kind of.”

Kara scratched her head before continuing.

“I think it’s time I told you a bit more about myself. I usually roam the wasteland by myself, but for the past few years, I have been traveling around with a group.”

She brought out her backpack and rummaged through its compartments before taking something out.

It was a white mask that looked like a fox’s face, complete with ears and painted whiskers. Even through the darkness, all of them could see the various scratches and markings on it, showing its age and past experiences in their full glory.

“They call themselves… the Silver Foxes. And their mission… is to destroy Paradise.”

The fire crackled loudly as if on cue, and Dauma leaned in closer.

“Destroy… Paradise?”

“Well, I won’t explain it too much, since I’m not the most qualified to tell you,” Kara deflected the question, “but once you meet them, you can find out.”

“Wait, so… we’re meeting them?” Anten responded.

“Yep! I’m sure you guys will get along well with them, they’re quite a friendly bunch!”

“No.”

“Sorry?”

“We’re not meeting them. We can’t risk any more lives lost.”

“Pshhhhh,” Kara replied as she put the mask back inside her backpack, “they’ve all got one foot in the grave anyway, including me, ue he he. So, I wouldn’t be concerned.”

“But…”

“Anten,” Dauma stepped in, “we need all the information we can get. We’ll be out of there before anyone gets hurt.”

“…”

Although it was very easy to miss, they all still spotted Yuu’s slight nod of agreement.

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“You see?” Kara pointed out, “you need to be more open-minded! If not, you’ll be left behind!”

“…whatever, but don’t say I didn’t warn you guys,” Anten reluctantly remarked before turning away from them and sulking again.

“Boy, is she ever fun?” Kara teased as the rest of them turned to look at her.

“Well, she was,” Dauma replied, “she was the one who made the decision to stop over at the village and leave to save Charlie though.”

“Come on, it happens.”

As Anten turned her head and glared at Kara, she quickly corrected herself.

“Not to be sarcastic or anything, but you really do have to let go of your mistakes sometime soon. I make mistakes too, you know. I thought my Extractor would help bring the villagers back, but it instead spawned Miss Yuu over there.”

Yuu shrunk back as soon as she heard her name being mentioned, but Anten was unfazed.

“Because of you and her…” she angrily muttered under her breath.

“What was that?”

“None of your business.”

“Anyway,” Kara yawned, seemingly unconcerned by Anten’s growing animosity towards her, “it’s getting late. I think I’ll tuck myself in first. Wake me up when sunrise comes.”

Her head vanished behind the flap as she retreated inside her tent, and soon the three of them could hear her loud snores coming out from the thin layer of cloth.

Anten grumbled as she turned back away from them and stared into the distance.

“What a bastard…” she muttered under her breath again, but this time nobody heard her.

**********************

The next sunrise.

After none of them volunteered, Anten and Yuu watched as Dauma entered the tent and tried to wake Kara up.

“It’s sunrise. I think you should wake up now.”

“Zzz… my Food Bar… zzz… will be legendary…”

“Come on.”

“Zzz… huh?”

A loud scream that sounded real but at the same time clearly exaggerated rang out from the tent, forcing the girls outside to cover their ears.

“Eek! You’re such a pervert! Barging into a girl’s room like that!”

“This isn’t a room though… ouch!”

Soon afterwards, he shuffled out of the tent with a displeased look on his face, all while Kara exaggeratedly raged inside.

“Good job,” Anten sarcastically remarked as she gave a thumbs up to him.

He did not respond to her jab, but he still sighed and waited outside for the inventor to get ready.

“Right then!”

In just over a minute after emerging from the tent herself, Kara had scarfed down a Food Bar, folded her tent, and got on her bike, eager to begin the day’s journey.

“We’ll probably make it to our destination in good time if we’re lucky,” she added as she glanced at the sun, “so chop chop, let’s move off!”

And with that, the group continued their journey through the wasteland.

**********************

As the group approached their destination, they noticed that some major changes were occurring in the landscape.

More and more remnants of human civilization were showing up, from road signs, to abandoned cars, and more bizarrely, a giant statue of a goofy-looking anthropomorphic dog with decaying, beady eyes that seemed to be looking at them unnervingly as they passed by it.

However, none of them were fazed by it in the slightest, especially Dauma, who had been feeling a sense of relief that, other than the village, he could finally see more traces of human handiwork as they grew in number the further they went.

Kara was unsurprisingly all smiles as she quickly glanced at each relic of civilization. Anten had a more mixed, dubious expression.

“…”

As for Yuu, he could feel something different about her. A certain strong emotion that exuded from her movements. She seemed to be deliberately taking her time to slow down, just for a short moment, to look at each relic carefully.

If he could hazard a guess, he could say she was carrying an unusual amount of excitement and interest towards these objects as her breaths got shorter and quicker with each new thing that popped up and she slowed down more frequently.

Huh, who would have thought?

“There it is!”

Eventually, after a whole myriad of relics, they could see the tops of tall skyscrapers slowly rising out of the ground, followed by smaller ones that varied in different shapes and designs, all stacked neatly together in rows and columns except for a few outliers.

As they got closer, the details of the buildings became clearer, and so did their current states of ruin. The extreme weather made it so that they were not overgrown with plants, but they were still a complete mess.

The faded signs were loose and barely hanging by a thread if they had not already crashed down to the ground and broken into multiple fragments. Any of the windows that were not shattered or missing were coated with sand and grime. To top it all off, several gaping holes seemed to have been blown into numerous tall buildings, exposing their interiors for all to see.

“We’ll stop here.”

As they crossed the boundary where the dilapidated skyscrapers towered over them, Kara skillfully maneuvered her bike to a small opening at the base of one of them and parked, before grabbing her backpack and dismounting.

“Come on, we’re walking by foot.”

With her leading the way, the group slowly made their way inside the city.

“…it’s quiet. Is it supposed to be this quiet?” Dauma commented as they passed by building after building.

Indeed, much like the wasteland, there was no sound that could be heard save for their footsteps and the occasional creak.

Upon hearing his question, Anten’s face paled and she began to mumble to herself.

“I knew it… they’re all gone…”

“Don’t get too worked up over nothing, kids,” Kara coolly replied, “my friends are just hiding in a safe space. They’re careful, after all. We never know when something might appear here.”

“So many buildings… is that an office… so tall…”

Meanwhile, Yuu was turning her head rapidly, looking all over her surroundings, all while busy mumbling confusing things with a small hidden smile on her face.

Suddenly, Kara stopped and quickly motioned for the rest to stop as well.

“Right, I forgot to mention something.”

“Huh? What is it?” Dauma responded as he stopped just slightly ahead of the group.

“Click.”

At the same time, his left leg snagged something on the ground.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The next instant, both the building walls on either side of him shone from top to bottom, and fired giant harpoons from multiple openings, all aimed directly at him. They traveled with speed and intensity, and quickly lodged themselves in the ground, but not before going through his body.

“Huh?”

He did not react with pain, but instead was more confused than anything about being completely skewered in place by the harpoons.

“Huh?”

Anten and Yuu were also slightly startled by the sudden ambush, and they stood there looking at him in silent shock, with Anten’s mouth gaping a little.

“Yeah, I may have forgotten to mention the beast traps we have set up in the city. Sorry about that. Ue he he.”

The culprit in charge walked up to him with a silly grin and rubbed her head in embarrassment, before working to pull out the harpoons pinning him down.

“…thanks for that.”

He did not know whether to chuckle or scold her, so he just went with a generic dry response as they all worked to pull him free from the trap.