The land was covered in blood and good and relentless heat. Kai felt like he was back on the desert wasteland of Nevada. The whole ordeal with the base 35 turned out better than expected—he survived. He was alive, although it would take time for him to fully recover all his injuries, he would live beyond any shadow of doubt.
"Argh…"
Daksha was nowhere to be seen, he was probably out of energy and resting on the other side.
'Sigh—'
Thinking of him made him sigh. He did not deserve the beast's loyalty. He has betrayed countless people in his life and killed many to save himself. And he can easily imagine his other side cutting off the fox to die to save his skin, yet the beast follows him faithfully in this god-fallen world.
Crossing the ruined streets—The once bustling streets of New York City that are now filled with debris and remnants of the past. Tall buildings lay in ruins, and nature is slowly reclaiming the city—Kai was laying in the midst of a thick forest that grew on buildings.
Kai did his research before coming here.
'Now that ive accomplished what i came here,' he glanced at the back of his hand—a glowing blue mark was there. It appeared as soon as he touched that device in the armory. 'I need to figure out how this thing works. The old man didn't really give me the details of this… thing. I assumed the data would be inside a chip or drive. But an AI interface, huh… to think it was in an integrated version, this just got more complicated.'
"Man, I always thought they were sci-fiction."
An integrated AI interface is a cutting edge technology where liquid nanites get absorbed inside human skin and integrate into the neural system of the brain. This gives the user a first hand interpretation of data like an augmented reality.
Kai knows this because he used to work for the department of research in his previous organisation—Spade—on top field missions. To learn new things was a sort of hobby to him. To think this would actually happen to him…
'I already have enough problems in my head.'
Heaving another sigh at his predicament, Kai decided to start moving too. To be in one place too long on the ground is just asking to be attacked by monsters.
After crossing the ruined streets filled with debris, luckily without encountering any monsters. He came across a survivor camp.
Scattered throughout the city, small camps of scavengers have formed after the apocalypse. They are resourceful survivors who make a living in the urban wasteland, often trading with or clashing with people from the military base. The people in camps possess deep hatred for the guys with clean clothes or uniforms.
The hatred stems from the actions of the military. Due to the limited resources, the army denied shelter for these people, while some rich or government people were prioritised for safety.
'Haah, damn… I wanted to avoid making contact with these people.'
There is but one rule for people in camps—make the best use of those around you. That is the way they served this long without dying. It's their formula of survival.
If it wasn't for the fact that night was approaching, he would've found some other way.
'And it's going to be a long night too.'
Seventy two hours of day and seventy two hours of night—that is what Kai discovered as one apocalyptic day. That is how time works now. Currently, after experiencing 96 of such days, he and all the survivors of humanity came to understand one thing that must never be underestimated.
Night is when the worst appears.
'Never make a move in the dark,' the old man's words echoed in his mind.
Kai clenched his teeth and started to move towards the camp.
The camp was at the edge of a back forest outside the city limits. Due to the morphed geography, and elevated landscape, Kai knew from a distance that if the survivors made camp anywhere, it would be around here. Thankfully—he was right. Monsters in the land avoid high places in fear of sky scythes, a carnivorous ruthless predator of the sky. but the scythes are only active around where their prey lives—the ground. So, conveniently, monster habitats were far from these places; most of the survivor camps are built around elevated places like this.
These are called green zones while the monster habitats were declared red zones. The army came up with a ranking system—from A to E—to determine the degree of safety and danger, respectively from these zones.
By Kai's estimate and the height of this place, it could easily pass for a c-rank green zone.
'While I can be sure I'll be safe from monsters, I can't say anything about the people here before I meet them. This is a risk I have to take if I want to survive another night.'
The closer he got, the more movement he noticed. They were in no doubt antsy with the unknown explosion earlier, coming from the military base direction. Any fool with eyes could have come to the conclusion that the base was incinerated in the fire and people may have died.
The mixed smell of blood and fire is something these people can never forget. They probably knew from experience that it means only one thing. The only safe bastion in the city, MB-35, has fallen.
The military and the Crimson's group were also probably headed to other scavenger camps, hoping to find shelter by the night, the guys with uniforms will probably be driven away unless they decided to act harshly towards the survivors in those camps.
'Well, forget about it for now. I need to prioritise myself right now and heal my injuries. The rest will depend on how I treat them… yes, the key here is communication. I should take things positively once in a while. Maybe they will turn out to be good guys and take me in. They look quite resourceful too, given that they're holding guns–less efficient than what he knew–and had built concrete homes around the small mountain.
Yes, let's go with a smile. I will raise my hands plead for shelter—'
"Excuse me, but, I need help—"
"Don't let that f*ker get any closer! Fire!!"
Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang.
'Well… so much for communication.'
The flurry of bullets tore through air and dust, Kai jumped sideways and hid behind a large stone. The fires scraped through the stone, sparks igniting the dry grass before the heat died down.
Kai peeks to see the attackers, but a second wave of bullets were fired again immediately after they saw him.
"Again! Man, this is getting me nowhere. Can't they see I'm harmless?"
The sound of bullets became stale and stopped before long. Anxious, he moved closer to the edge of the stone to see what they were doing. He started to sweat profusely as he saw more people with guns taking positions on the mountain top-edge. Some guy who looked like their leader was talking with the nearby group.
'Curses.'
Because of the distance between them, he can't make out what they were talking about. But there was no way in hell he was going to fight them on this slope. That's basically suicide. These places were called survivor camps for a reason. They have the high ground, and no doubt they have faced monsters before. Kai was a sitting duck here.
On the other side, some time ago, the guy who assumed command of the whole place as soon as he got a report of something suspicious approaching the camp. He ordered his men to grab all the ammo and weapons they could find.
Any large activity that's out of ordinary is considered a threat or sign of approaching danger. The earlier explosion that destroyed the city base definitely counts as one. The unrest spread through all other camps as well—unless they had an oracle or seer awakened among them who saw it coming.
In their eyes, they could be the next one to be attacked after MB-35, so Harry, the camp's leader, ordered everyone to be prepared. Then some guy just showed up in the mountain range when he was already tense.
Looking down, it seemed like the guy below was walking weirdly. Perhaps he was a refugee seeking shelter. He opened a binocular and saw a man with tattered clothes. Harry was decent enough to consider helping him, but then the guy below smiled, sudden;y looking at his direction.
'No way, he's actually looking at me. But how? He's so far away…'
Harry was immediately creeped out.
"....cuse .., but, I …. help—"
"Don't let that f*ker get any closer! Fire!!"
===