Chapter 11: Sniffing 'Dog', Black Market

After they stare at each other for a while, the man decided to talk to them as he instructed a few adults to stay and protect here, while he lead them to one of the rooms in the apartment.

While he was leading the way, they got the chance to introduce each other and knowing the name of the man that attacked them, Mark Evans a normal citizen that lives in this apartment.

When the apocalypse happened Mark and his family is inside their house, eating their lunch while talking and laughing like a normal happy family.

But the change of event happens quickly, they suddenly heard some commotion outside of their apartment as they saw people running frantically on the streets while seeing them being chased by zombies that gnawing their bodies.

They immediately call for their neighbors as they were panicking about this, they call the cops and other stations to help them in this situation, but there's no response wherever they call.

They huddled up on their own room for a few days, hiding from the sights of zombies that was lurking outside and one day a group of people cleans up the zombies from the roads, streets and some building near their area.

At first the people that saw this were full of gratitude for what they did, but those feelings didn't last longer.

Those groups of people searched every nook and cranny of all buildings, establishments and house while looking for foods, items and even woman to plunder.

These groups of people called themselves Terrence Gang, a group that made out of gangs and criminals that band together to tyrannize and rule this area.

But their plan didn't completely succeed when another group of people showed up, Black Hawk, this group of people is mysterious and dangerous.

They have the least number of people than the other group, but each person in this group shows a powerful strength.

"The Terrence Gang has at least 100 people while the Black Hawk, we only know 6 or 7 people about them and they're also the responsible for destroying the bridge." Mark explained their situation emotionally while sipping some water to wet his throat.

"Hmm.. What do you think Ziv?" Reynold ponders when he heard that then he whispered at Ziv for his opinion.

"This will be troublesome. We met some 'people' while we're on the way to our destination. We could befriend those Hawk guys to ask them for some methods to cross the bridge, but those Terrence guys we shouldn't approach them as they're unruly people." Ziv said while analyzing the two group.

"That's true. But we can just climb the cable of the bridge and try to cross with it, you know?" Reynold suggested a crazy idea.

"Are you crazy!? Did you know how long is that bridge? That bridge spans for 3,000 feet long." Ziv exclaimed as he smacked his head.

"Ahh! That's true. I thought they were like those wooden bridge that we walk into when we were training." Reynold exclaimed as he realizes that it's not the same thing he think of.

"Anyways, we need to approach one of the group to get us out of this place." Ziv said while pointing the solution for this problem.

He said while standing up bidding his farewell with Mark as they left the room to find the Hawk guys.

After they left the apartment, Mark was standing on the window watching them as they leave and walking away from the apartment.

"Who are they?" a man clad with black cloaked that only revealed his eyes suddenly appeared beside him.

"You're not eavesdropping earlier?" Mark asked the man on cloaked.

"They're too dangerous, especially that guy with a suitcase."

"Really? Not the guy with a gun?" Mark exclaimed in surprise as he didn't expect the funny guy is much dangerous than the guy with a rifle.

'Well, they're both can threaten my life, but I'm not going to say that in front of this guy. I need to report this to Leader.' the man in black cloaked thought.

"Anyways, they said they came from.." Mark recounted all of the things he know.

...

Meanwhile, the two people they were talking about were now cautiously walking the streets, afraid to attract a huge amount of zombies while trying to locate those so called Black Hawk to ask for cooperation.

"Where do we start searching?" Reynold asks in a passing.

"Let's go check the bridge first, maybe we can find some traces they left behind." he replied.

They encounter a few scattered zombies on the streets while fighting their way towards the bridge.

*Splat* *Splish*

"That's my 6th kill Ziv!" Reynold said while showing off his clean stabbing on the head of the zombies in different angle.

"Well, you're charging the zombies while I was standing here waiting for them to come." he replied while looking at him boasting about his kills.

"Anyways, you've already noticed that something is off with that Mark, don't you?" Reynold suddenly asked.

"When he was telling us about their situation. I know that his emotional story isn't real while he's having a mannerism of a lying person and also he knows a lot things." Ziv pointed out what he observed from their conversation earlier.

"Oh.. I didn't know that you can notice that kind of detail." Reynold was startled by his attention to detail.

"Artists are meticulous people in terms of the details of our artwork in addition to that, we also see something that normal people couldn't see." Ziv said in a matter of fact explailination.

"But that didn't equate that you can see through his lies." Reynold rebuked.

"I study psychology." Ziv added.

"What!? That doesn't make any sense." Reynold become more confused as he continue saying things.

"We've arrived." Ziv ignored him.

While Reynold is being in complete confusion, they finally arrived at the destroyed bridge after cleaning up all the zombies on the way there.

When they saw the damage of the explosion, they were stunned by the sight of the half collapsed bridge and the debris of the structure that fell on the water and the only thing that remain on the bridge are the pillar in the middle and a road that connected on the other side.

"I feel that we're on a movie or something? This is insane, but it looks fun to do this sometimes!" Ziv heard Reynold excitedly exclaimed as he was looking at the bridge.

"Haa.. Please don't forget what we came for." Ziv helplessly sighed and reminded him as he was getting immerse in his world.

"Oh yes.. That's right, look for traces.. Look for traces."

One hour has passed, when Reynold started inspecting for some traces in the scene that can possibly lead them to the Black Hawks.

"Any results?" Ziv asked while looking at Reynold looking here and there.

"I already had located them *sniff*, I smell burnt fried chicken wings *sniff*, strong woman perfume!? Oh yeah!" Reynold said while doing something weird.

"What are you doing?" Ziv asked, concerned while looking at him mumbling and acting weird.

"Nothing! Come on, follow me! Let's go!" Reynold urged him while running with his hand behind his back.

'What is this roleplaying?' Ziv thought before following behind him.

He followed behind Reynold while he was constantly sniffing and inspecting some remaining traces on the road.

...

As they continue to follow the traces of Black Hawk, they arrived on the industrial district in a place far from the residential area and the bridge that they went earlier.

They went into the industrial district, while seeing abandoned warehouses that produce manufacturing products in the side of the road.

While the atmosphere around this place is gloomy and bleak, the human activity isn't decreasing at all instead it's much more flourishing than the any place they went to.

"What is this place?" Ziv mutters while looking at the people going in and out of this place.

They saw a lot of people, both male and females with tattered clothes, carrying a bag full of items in their back and people that was gathering around in a metal barrel that was lit with fire inside to alleviate their cold.

"Is this the Black Market that I heard of?" Reynold exclaimed while looking at the crowd.

"What is this Black Market you talking about?" Ziv asked him in confusion.

"Well, the Black Market is a secretive gathering spot that let you buy and sell different illegal items that you couldn't buy in a normal market."

"This is where you can see some firearms, drugs, human trafficking and etc., this type of places is banned in different countries before, but now that the apocalypse started they can blatantly show this off without worrying about military and government officials except zombies." Reynold explained.

"Maybe, we can see something interesting here while looking for the method to cross the bridge." Ziv ponders for a moment while looking at the bustling crowds.

"That's true. Let's look around to see if there's something we take fancy." Reynold suggested at him with expectant eyes.

They enter the Black Market and walked with the crowd to avoid attracting attention and feel different than other people.

While they were browsing around the shops and stalls filled with illegal items to see if there's something they need here, he suddenly saw Reynold entering a shop.

"Look at that! Is that an RPG-7? T-They also have L-L96A1?" Reynold was too excited that he was drooling and stuttering.

He immediately approached the shop that selling the high powered guns that were displayed on the table.

"Hello! What can I do for you?" the vendor asked.

"How much is this for?" Reynold pointed at the RPG and the sniper rifle.

"Just only 100 Inos or 9 Tier 0 Energy Crystal for each." the vendor plainly said while looking at Reynold.

"Heh!? That's too much for this gun! Gimme 7 Crystal." Reynold haggles the price.

"8 Crystal each gun or else I'm going to lose out here." the vendor insists.

"How about 8 Crystal for L96 with the addition of 10 full magazines? How's that?" Reynold suggested.

They haggle for the price of the gun for a while before the vendor gritted his teeth while agreeing on 8 Crystal for a gun with 8 Magazines.

"Deal!"

Reynold exits the shop happily while carrying his gun as he was showing it off in front of Ziv at the same time he was kissing and licking it.

"There you go Veronica! We will have our dinner tonight. Oh, you want to go on motel after dinner? Yes. Yes!" Reynold is weirdly whispering his gun while Ziv was looking at him with disgust.

"What is that Inos you just said?" Ziv suddenly asked to stop the awkward and weird scene.

"It's the currency that the people used in the Village that I mentioned before. You'll know when we get there."

Reynold stopped whispering at his gun while he answers his question, but he still wasn't looking at him, instead he was still staring at the gun that he just bought.

"Are you not going to buy any guns or items you need?" Reynold suddenly asked.

"Let's see, I still have 26 Tier 0 Crystal from the zombie clean up we made along the way. What about you?" Ziv looked at his Crystal while asking Reynold.

"Before I bought Veronica I have 21 Tier 0 Crystal and 3 Tier Crystal. So, I still have 13 Tier 0 and 3 Tier 1." Reynold said while looking at his Crystals.

"You have Tier 1? Why are you not using it?" Ziv was surprised that Reynold has possession of Tier 1 Crystal.

"I already used two before, but I'm saving the rest for emergency." Reynold replied.

"Oh.. Okay. Anyways, I'll try to search some materials and items here that we can use to upgrade our gears just lend me Crystal when I run out." Ziv focus on different things as he understand what he want to do by that.

"Okay. But I think we will do it tomorrow." Reynold said in a slightly loud tone while laughing.

"Oh.. Yeah. It's night already we can do it tomorrow morning." Ziv was confused at first.

When Reynold said that in a tone that other people can hear, he suddenly felt something amiss as he secretly observed his surroundings.

'Why are there people slowly encircling us?' Ziv thought while seeing a few people slowly surround the two of them.

"Oh.. Ziv! I'll bring you somewhere you didn't go in your entire life." Reynold said while meaningfully looking at him and hitting him with his elbow.

"Where is it?" Ziv asked naturally without mentioning what he observed.

"Just follow me! I'll take you to heave- I mean in that place." Reynold said while leading him towards the inner area of Black Market.

"I don't like it when you said it like that." Ziv said with a suspicious look.

They walk towards the deeper part of the Black Market while leaving behind a group of people that secretly surrounded them.

"Sh*t! They got away."

"Chase them!"