Chapter 31 Infected

The place stunk and almost made her literally want to hurl. When she got out of there, she wasted no time using the nearby water source and thoroughly washed her hands then scrubbed her face trying to rid her mind of that place before continuing to stare upon the numbers of vehicles under the cold early spring night.

With the sun now gone, she stared at the entrance of the portable fence guarded by three soldiers on each side of the sliding fence while she crouched down in the darkness careful of the light her eyes could reflect from their strong electric lights set on the top of the fence. Willow watched with Akira poking his cat head out from her jacket in silence from the darkness of the buildings around the corner.

"So, you feel that the source was reliable enough to follow through in the end?" Aki asked her curiously.

"It's not the source I trust." Willow sighed in disappointment and whispered back.

"Then, why?"

"I didn't have any money and he could easily choose not to believe me. He can even dispose of me. What would it matter to him if he lost another source from his business if that source isn't reliable? So, why would he lie about something that he knew would be dangerous information to others? I'm not some important family member of his or his mother that he has to lie to steer away from danger. We've already warned him enough about our little danger sign. Would he have the guts to lie to us if that danger sign has anything to do with us and how we know that? Sh..."

It was then that they saw two military trucks drove over with tent covers wrapping the canopy back. The six soldiers did their exchange with the other six before the driver came out and began to gather the report from one of the soldiers he reached out to, who gave a salute before giving his statement.

"Trouble with a woman?" The commanding looking driver sounded displeased under his face mask as the Chinese words caused Willow's heart to almost skip a beat and sweat began to crawl down from her back, "Does this look a school ground to you, boy? Our orders is to capture anyone that causes trouble! Not hanging around some woman!"

She heard a knock on, probably, the helmet or something hard.

"Yes, sir!" The man responded without sounding the least bit nervous or grief but was probably ashamed by the sound of his voice.

"Hurry to the vehicle! Go!" The Commanding figure ordered firmly.

.....

It was only when she heard the last thump of the men's foot on the wagon that she pulled out the small custom vial she stored away in her duffel bag.

The vial was ceramic and smooth to the touch. It was small to the point that it fit her palm with a thin neck and a round body. It had a smooth finishing cover and was plain white.

She could feel the liquid slosh in her palm from the small vial, and she stealthily tied a wet handkerchief under her face mask praying to that stupid father of hers that this works on all six people.

"Open the doors!"

With the man's call, the fence was opened as a whisper could be heard from amongst the group in the canopy wagon.

"Hey! So, what now?"

"What do you mean what now?"

"I forgot our next course of action..." The man replied with an embarrassed tone.

"M-Me too..."

There was a sigh that escaped from one of them as he swore quietly, "Those morons just had to recruit newbies during an epidemic. Listen here and engrave it in your mind. We're going to escort the infected to the underground shelter."

"What about that woman we encountered?"

"Does that need to be asked?" Another answered with a laidback sigh, "Since the mother is infected, we need to bring both mother and child into the underground as well."

"But the infant isn't sick." The newbie responded.

"Moron." The same man replied, "Infants are close to the mother and is nursed by the mother. Even if the baby isn't sick, it can be a carrier just from so much interaction. As long as the infant is around the mother for long periods of time or was born in these areas, they need to enter the underground shelter with the other infected until a cure is made. If you have any objections, you can go see the chief. Though, I bet he'll just tell you to pack your bags and leave if you do that."

"That's..."

"What's all that whispering for?!" The commander scolded them in a loud threatening voice before he shook in his seat, "Hey, what's... that smell?"

It didn't take long for her to hear the sound of something skid and her entire body struggled to by glued to the floor of the back of the truck. However, with her heavy bag, she managed to avoid sliding out from behind the driver's seat as the truck or wagon whatever slid off the dirt trail and slid across the wet dirt covered with thin ice.

Nervously, she hugged Akira and her duffel bag before there was a loud bang and airbags inflated behind her back cushioned by the back of the seat. Nervously, she looked around and found that the commander figure had been saved by the cushion of the air bag and his door had given way to the damage so much that it had fallen off of its hinges!

The smell of smoke filled the air and shouts from the back could be heard, but Willow didn't wait anymore and jumped out from the front of the truck that pulled the wagon. It was then that she noticed that the truck had crashed through the railing fence and crashed its rear side into a tree.

She ignored the broken glass and ran stealthily into the darkness of the alleyways of the dead city with a smirk hidden under her dark hood.

"That was fast." Akira noted through his mind to her as she began pulling out the pieces of glass shards from her arm, "And bumpy."

Applying medicine on her arm and tying the wet cloth she had used beneath her mask for it, she responded internally with a sarcastic tone, "Right. Not like you had it worse than I did."

It was then that she felt a sting from her arm once again forcing her to grit her teeth and just bear it. She could hear Akira's sigh as she poured water over the drops of blood that have fallen onto the ground. It wasn't like she purposely let herself scratch her arm against the shards of the broken window when she jumped out. She scowled with irritation as she quietly cursed her own clumsiness.

If only she had been watchful on how she darted out from the truck, perhaps she wouldn't have scrapped her arm then. Thanks to this, she'll have to be more mindful of her surroundings.

The border of Beijing was rather desolate and barren of any people and such. It as though this rural town was facing a harsh drought if not for the hints of wet dirt around corners and bumps on the dirt road. With a frown, Willow began to look for a place to stay for the night. No doubt the place wouldn't have much of a place for her to stay. But, something else was on her mind. They had mention something about illness.

However, she was certain that the epidemic here had perished along with the people that were in too much pain to leave their homes when the eruption occurred. The alley ways in the rural areas aren't as narrow as those in the cities making it feel like it was like any other neighboring streets. Willow frowned. It's not adding up.

That's when she recalled it.

That time when she was escaping from the tides of lava she barely managed to escape the city despite her despondent state of mind. However, even when she could've escaped from the lava, she had already breathed in too much smoke from the fires the eruption created. With the epidemic eating away on her organs and the smoke she breathed in, she became too weak to do much of anything else and collapsed only after she made it to the rural areas of Beijing.

When she thought of this, an idea came to mind as she began making her way through the empty streets of the rural parts of Beijing. She wasn't certain where she was, but It wasn't difficult to see the tall shadows of buildings in the distance. After spending many hours walking that the moon was now high in the sky she finally found herself having safely reached her destination.

The town looked dead and in the middle of the night, but there was strange figures moving about the streets. Willow frowned as she saw this and silently made her way to the nearest hotel she could find using her phone. The sites have not been updated since the eruptions and those that have been updated have shown that the place had closed.

However, that didn't matter to Willow in the least. In the state of the city it was in, she can only hope that her luck would be good as she made her way to these places while silently hoping that she doesn't come across scary people.

Yet, after making her way through three hotels, she had found the first two hotels were securely locked and barricaded with sandbags while the last rundown hotel was occupied by survivors that didn't look to friendly in her eyes as they had just thrown out a family of three. With a sigh, she finally sat down on the abandoned steps of a store.

The store was ruined with broken glass and broken shelves. Her arms continued to ache much to her annoyance. She quietly made her way through the streets of dark buildings when she noticed one of the figures walking amongst the darkness of the streets approach her cautiously but didn't call out to her like the others had in the past. She frowned and raised a brow in confusion.

"Willow." Akira called her through their little telepath system, "What do you see?"

"Someone's coming over to me, but they're acting pretty quiet." Willow responded curiously, "Maybe another drug addict?"

During her time wandering the cities, she's come across a few walking amongst the civilians and a couple in the alley ways. Some even came up to her before and tried to assault her before, but she had always managed to find help by shouting. Yet, this time, there was very few people around and not much lights shone on the main streets. However, the way the man silently approached her with heavy footsteps.

"Get out of here!" Aki's scream penetrated her mind which startled her in bewilderment.

In her surprise, she slipped on the wet concrete floor but kicked her feet quickly setting a gap between her and the figure that suddenly threw themselves at where she fell. She didn't give a second thought this time and reacted quickly to what Akira told her as she dashed through the darkness with only the shadows of the concrete along the sidewalk to give her guidance. She turned her head around to look back quickly for a peek.

"Watch out!"