Chapter 13: clearing begins
Edward sat quietly at the side as he watched Fablo and the others make preparations to move out towards the military base. They were not trying to change places yet as the military base was still dangerous, they only planned to clear a bit of the place and then retreat here; not everyone would be moving as well since some needed to stay behind to watch the place and open the door for them when they returned.
Edward could hear Fablo's voice passing orders and asking questions while the others carried and packed what they would need during their expedition, but none of these seemed to be Edward's focus as his blank eyes clearly told others that his mind was not there.
It could not be helped that he would be absent-minded at such a time, even though he had spent the whole of the previous day trying to not think about it, the thought and sight of what happened in the restroom yesterday kept playing in his mind.
Green…his blood was green!!
The thought of it almost made Edward lose his sanity, knowing that he had the same blood color as zombies was not helpful to his situation in the slightest. It only added to his worries instead as he now had another reason to avoid getting hurt in front of others. What would be people's reaction if he suddenly started to bleed green blood? He could not imagine.
'And here I was bothering about healing too quickly yesterday, compared to this, my self-healing isn't even worth mentioning' Edward scoffed inwardly as he held his head, all these thoughts were almost about to make him depressed.
"Hey, Edward! Do you have anything to prepare? We are about to leave"
Fablo's voice pulled Edward from his thoughts just before he lost himself to the mad whispers of worry.
Edward looked up and saw Fablo and the others staring at him, a total of fifteen people were going and they had left only five to watch over the place who were the scrawny man, the fat woman, two elderly women, and another man with white hair who looked to be in his late sixties. Everyone else was going except them and it seemed that Edward, too, would be going as well.
"Umm…" Edward stared up at him from where he was sitting with a reluctant expression on his face. He was thinking of a way to stay behind, maybe using an excuse that he could help the five who would be left behind to watch after the place as he did not think that they could handle things themselves if they really got attacked. But priscal, the woman who had given them food the previous day spoke first before Edward could find his words.
"Should he really follow us? I don't think a kid can handle what we are about to do, so why not let him stay behind?" Priscila said to Fablo with a frown on her face. She had seen Edward's reluctant expression and knew this kid did not want to follow them and she had to agree that it was perfectly reasonable since what they were about to do could be anything but dangerous; only that while she was viewing the zombies as the only threats outside, Edward's threats were both zombies and humans because of his inexplicable condition.
But even Edward wanted to refute her despite agreeing with her. What did she mean by a kid who could not handle what? Was there still a kid after all that had happened in the past three years? There might be kids, but they definitely were not living in this hell of a place.
Even Fablo too thought the same.
"What kid? Did you think a kid would survive three years in this place? Enough talking, I say he's coming so he's coming. I'll take responsibility for him" Fablo said, shutting Edward and whoever still wanted to object.
'What sort of situation is this? At least ask if I want to go' Edward grumbled inwardly as he was not even given the chance to speak. He could only helplessly rise from his sitting position and follow them downstairs before exiting through the metal door.
The cold breeze of the street brushed against his skin, the weather was somewhat cooling despite the glaring sun in the sky. The air smelled funny, mixed with blood and dead flesh that roamed the street.
*Here, take this" Fablo said and passed a baseball bat to Edward.
" Swing it hard when you use it" he added with a grin on his face before turning to the others.
" Alright everyone, we will be heading towards our target now. There are no plans since we don't really know what we will be expecting so making plans ahead would be useless if not disastrous. Just remember these things… be fast, quiet as possible, and stay close" Fablo said and everyone nodded with serious expressions on their faces.
Some could not help but shift nervously as what they were about to do filled them with fear, they gulped hard at the thought of possibly getting eaten outside. Edward could easily tell that these people were just as scared as he was from their tense expressions but the fact that they dared to come out here made Edward give them his silent respect.
'What am I thinking? Aren't I also out here? Where's the respect I'm giving to myself?' Edward mocked himself silently as a helpless smile hung on his face. He knew that unlike the people who were willing to assist Fablo or so it seemed, he was prepared to flee at the slightest sight of death. Even if he had to abandon them and escape all by himself.
All sixteen of them clenched their weapons in their hands and slowly began to advance toward the direction Fablo had pointed out.
The group advanced and soon left the street where their base was located, they had not encountered any zombies as of yet as they only met the aftermath of chaos, destroyed buildings, abandoned and corpses littering the streets.
Everywhere was a mess, some stared at the state of some bodies with disgusted faces because of how awful they were looking after the zombies had worked on them or how the people had left the zombies. But strangely, Edward often found himself entranced by these disgusting corpses. To be more specific, he was lusting after their eyes like a rare dish.
'What the hell is wrong with me?' Edward shook his head vigorously to wake himself from the entranced state before he did something insane.
Others looked at him and thought he was only doing so to clear his head of disturbing thoughts.
Fablo, who was walking in front suddenly stopped and waved his hand for everyone behind him to stop as well.
"Let's wait for the others, there are zombies ahead" Fablo turned and said to them. He observed Edward for a while before looking away.
'The kid is holding out well' He thought to himself.
The group waited for a few seconds before the others arrived, due to their numbers easily forming a small crowd. Fablo had decided to divide them into a group of four cohorts with four members each to avoid being spotted easily by the zombies or being heard due to their movements, but they had to stay as close as possible so they could quickly group up in case something unexpected happened.
There were obvious confusions on the faces of the other groups as they arrived shortly after but their faces soon turned serious and tensed after they were told the reason for the emergency group up.
"The path ahead is littered with zombies, you can easily see dozens of them roaming the street and a few through the broken windows of those buildings. So I guess this would be our landmark for now. We will clear this place completely before proceeding" Fablo said and the others except Edward nodded as he stared at them like some freaks.
'The man literally just said that there were dozens of them on the street and a few more in those buildings, which meant he was not sure about their numbers and if they were more than the ones already on the street! But you guys were planning to kill them? With how many of you or which weapons?' Edward screamed internally, his urge to flee away from these people was slowly making him feel cold.
"So what do we do now?" One of the women asked. Her hand that was holding a large kitchen knife was shaking slightly but there was resolve burning in her eyes.
One good thing about the situation that helped them to stay calm was that the place they were about to clear was like a small neighborhood with a few houses and some stores mixed within and it would definitely take them days to clear everything so they did not have to rush and could slowly make plans and arrangements.
Fablo studied their faces for a few seconds and sighed inwardly, they were women after all and even he would not want them to go through such an experience if he had a choice.
"So, this is what we are going to do"
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