On the move

Date: September 11

Place: Nagano, Japan

[Kikoe]

The moment Rei used the teleportation crystal and we arrived, embarrassing as it is, I puked on the spot.

"Kikoe, you good?" Noel handed me a handkerchief to wipe it off while Cedrick gave me a small bottle of water.

"Sorry," I mumbled, drinking it and using the rest to wash my mouth and hands.

"You have to get used to that," Rei says, scanning the area.

"I know, I know," I repeated in a hushed tone, using the glasses to scan the area along with everyone as we walked forward silently and alert.

"Just ten minutes straight," they began to distance themselves from Cedrick's words. He was walking farthest from the left, and Noel was somewhat close to me at the back while she was walking in the middle of the streets, taking the lead.

"There's so many people in that bus," I mumbled but it wasn't just the bus, every other car that we come across, with the help of my glasses I could see their lifeless bodies.

"What?" Noel was puzzled, looking at it too but unable to see the insides.

"Alive?" Rei spoke through the comms.

"No," my eyes hovered in Cedrick's direction where I almost shouted. "Cedrick a fast one approaching on your left," my throat dried from worry but then glanced toward Rei who was just continuously walking straight and Noel doing the same.

"Nice one, Kikoe," Cedrick let out a low giggle.

"What?" my eyes widened when I focused my sight on him again. The earlier running monster was now lying on the ground, unmoving.

"First time?" Noel had the liberty of watching my expressions bewildered with confusion and adoration.

~skip~

"We've gone through every detail, but every mission will not go according to plan," she lectured as we were nearing our destination.

"In our case, it's always a 99% that it'll not go according to any plan that we've thoroughly discussed," Cedrick joked. "I'll go this way then," he went to the back of the building, giving us a wave as he took off and ran. "Good luck everyone," he says on the earpieces. "And Kikoe," he added.

Cedrick was far from our sight now. He was tasked with mapping the area for any signs of life.

"Yes?" I responded, following the other two quietly trying to surround one broken glass door.

"Stick to anyone so you don't die early," he laughed at the end of the line while the other two only looked at me with confusion when I burst into worry all of a sudden.

[Rei]

"Cedrick what did you say to him," I say in a nagging voice as I see Kikoe's eyes almost overflowing in tears, holding his pistol tight on his chest.

"Nothing," he buoyantly replied as I heard him clanking open a metal door.

[Kikoe]

Rei stepped inside first, then followed us after she carefully looked in every direction. "How's it look, Kikoe?" she asked, the sound of two tiny flashlights opening as they could finally see some texture.

Stepping through the broken glass, the crunch of it echoed on this chilled floor. Our footsteps were as light as can be as we stepped further into the area. No wind tickles our skin, no sounds of human activities other than our low breathings and continuous steps, nor are there any lights.

"Nothing so far," using my glasses to their full capacity as I scanned every area that we passed through.

"There's no lights here either," Cedrick sighed as we heard the click of his flashlight's button. "I'll go check the electrical room," steps going down fast as he relayed his message

After a few steps more, we reached the edge of the escalator, "The stores should be around the second floor," Rei mumbled and led us up the escalator while Noel guarded my back.

I felt like an important person delegate to be guarded like this.

"Should we split up?" Noel asked with no drug store in sight.

"Too dangerous," she sighed.

We've already done a full circle on the second floor, all three of us alert and focused on every tile that we step onto. There were bloodstains the further we explored the current floors but we didn't need any words to express our confusion.

There were no bodies in sight, may it be the monsters or people. I scanned every store that we walked past by with my glasses and Rei glances at me from time to time, confirming the situation.

I only shook my head sideways as sighs escaped me every time.

"What's going on," she scratches her head.

"Look," Noel's whispers were far from where Rei and I both stood. "The floor map says our destinations were on the fourth and fifth floors," Noel took a photo of the information that was posted on the wall.

"Was our's not up to date?" Rei hurriedly checked the information that came on the file.

We heard a laughing Cedrick as Noel sent the photo to him too. "This one's ten years ago," he said.

"How did we miss that," Noel just smiled.

"The electrical room isn't here either," Cedrick reported. "It says here it's on the first floor," his cheerful demeanor tells me that everything is going smoothly on the underground floor too.

"Alrighty, we did a full round on the second floor, and no signs of anything," I saw Rei typing on her watch while Noel was just flashing all the directions that he looked at.

[Noel]

The silence of this place was too loud to bear, only their whispers were what I could hear until an item dropped behind me.

My body reacted and lit the fallen empty water bottle on the ground. It rolled on a pair of feet that had identical shoes from the Assault Division, I slowly lifted the lights up but unintentionally pointed it at the face when the foot moved and started walking toward us.

"Holy! You scared me," a violent whisper squeaked out of me as Kikoe looked rather confused at the sudden light I shone on his face.

Rei immediately went inside the convenience store and Kikoe stood at the counter.

"Do we grab a snack?" I joked around, also circling the store to observe some of the shelves. But to our surprise, everything was fully stacked but a few items.

"Oil?" I read what was displayed on the shelf, and beside it, some of the spices like salt, pepper, garlic powder, and sugar were almost sold out.

"All the magazines and advertisement papers are gone too," Kikoe slowly walked over to me, holding some remaining paper but it had signs of being burnt.

The flickering lights both led us to rush over to the freezers where we found Rei taking pictures of it.

To our horror, Kikoe and I couldn't stomach what we saw. We turned around and held each other's shoulders for support as we puked on the ground.

The horrid smell of dried blood and rotting flesh kept lingering in our nostrils until Rei handed both of us damped rags.

"Wait outside," she said and went back to documenting the sight.

We had no objection to the idea and did as she told us.