Arrival - Komatsu City I

Ryo decided to give the liquid virus to Aki and Yugo, hopeful that they both would survive. The amount he gave them was lower than the doses the girls drank, so he was sure it was much safer than it had been for them. As expected, they survived the enhancement.

Ryo thought of the moment he explained how the enhancement of the liquid virus worked and the pair looked at him with faces that said clearly one thing. They understood nothing of what he was saying. In the end the explanation was reduced to something like "Drink this, it'll make you stronger"

That being dealt with and everyone being rested, they got back on the bus and parted towards Komatsu City.

*

"Ryo" he heard Saya call him when they could finally see the city. They had been travelling for only three hours, sometimes having to move slowly due to the random crash sites in the road. "Hm? What is it, my pinkette?"

"I don't think moving too much into the city is a good idea" she said with a reluctant face, She looked ahead, to the population, with a face that spoke loads compared to her words. It was fear.

Ryo understood what she might be feeling, and looked back for a second to see that Shouko and even Rei to some extent had the same faces. He could only sigh and, driving with his left hand only, pat the girls head -something he new helped her calm down-.

"I understand what you meant" he said while looking at the city with determination. "We can't get stuck because we are afraid"

Saya looked at him and, breathing deeply, nodded. She knew that it was cowardly, but she really was afraid of going into the city. After all, it was the most dangerous place. Still, she went back to her seat and stayed there. Even if she was afraid, she trusted Ryo would protect her.

Quite quickly, they entered the outskirts of the city. Seeing the open land progressively grow more and more populated and modern would've been quite the sight, if there hadn't been zombies walking through the streets and painting the front of the bus red in blood. Ryo was thinking of adding a wedge or a snowplow to the front of the bus so it wouldn't take the impact directly.

"Well... wait for a minute in the bus" Ryo said when they passed by a clothing store. He really wanted to get rid of what he was wearing, as it was bathed in blood.

A couple of minutes later, he came out of the store with a different outfit that looked more refreshing. He was still wearing the tech cargo joggers, since they were a particular favorite of his. But the top part of his outfit was totally different. He was wearing a zippered, turtle neck teal t-shirt below a long black leather coat with a high neck, decorated with belts that where clearly added by Ryo himself. On his feet were, once again, a pair of military combat boots.

"You look like a modern day Dante with black hair" Rika joked with him when he got on the bus He almost tripped and fell, but kept his balance until he was once again on the bus. "Thanks, Rika. I take that as a compliment"

And in that joky mood, they went back to traveling through the city.

"Isn't that a Hunting Store?" Hiratsuka asked as she stared at a shop a few blocks away. Looking at it, everyone realized it actually was. Ryo immediately headed towards the shop and pulled over. "Come on, we have to see if this place has been looted or not"

After killing five zombies that were walking in the area, the gang went into the shop. Ryo was extremely happy when he realized the place hadn't been looted yet.

A Hunting Store and a Gun Shop were naturally different, but he'd rather loot a Hunt Shop a thousand times, and the reason for that was the variety of tools present in them. A gun could be used to kill, but the amount of ammo you can carry and the amoun of bullets you can fire without a gun malfunctioning or needing maintenance are limited. Hunting tools and gear are different. Most just need sharpening and those that don't, don't break easily.

An exampled for this were fishing rods. A fishing rod itself isn't really useful, but the line and the reel are. The line could be used to set up traps, alarms and even a perimeter. And because of it's durability, it could even be used to cut a zombie's head off. The reel, on the other hand, could be also used for traps, but could also be used for heavy work as a tool or added to a crossbow to have an easy-to-recover bolt of sorts.

Besides those things, which were more utilitarian in nature, there were utility knives, hunting knives, machetes, axes, lumberjack axes, flashlights, boots, rope, crossbows and many other things. One of the most important things they found in the store were the copper coated flashlights. Like the Humvee had been and the bus now was, they were immune to the EMP and survived through it.

"Take that, fucking North Koreans"

Once everything in the store had been checked, they left the place looking way different. Ryo himself had five knives strapped to different parts of his body, and that was less than a quarter of the blades in the store. Saya now had a machete and she insisted on using it, so they allowed her to participate the next time they cleaned up a few zombies. Shouko, on the other hand, grabbed onto one of the crossbows, which made Ryo sigh in relief. Shouko looked so pure that he couldn't picture her killing a zombie from up close.

"The store has been looted before, huh?" Rei said as she stared at the lack of firearms in the entire place. It made sense, since people would naturally want to rely on a gun rather than a cold blade. Ryo put a hand on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, we'll find a gun in no time and you'll have your own Bladed Series item"

Rei blushed when she realized he knew why she wanted to find a weapon suitable for her spear, but didn't bother denying it not anything. Ryo was glad that there were no Tsunderes left in the group.

Once everything useful was loaded on the bus's baggage compartment, they kept travelling towards the airport. Only a short few minutes later they heard a loud bang, clearly belonging to a gun being fired. Ryo stopped the bus and everyone looked at each other.

"We're going?" Yuriko asked, not against it but also not in favor. Ryo just looked at her and nodded. "If they are good, we help. If we see something shady, we leave them to their fate"

Yugo and Aki almost tried to argue that one point, but a quick glance from Ryo's cold face was more than enough to shush them.

"This is the world we live in now" he said while approaching on foot. Not way he was showing the bus to anyone he didn't trust. "The ruthless and strong live, the weak of body and mind die"

That was a fact that Ryo knew from the beginning. That was the way Earth functioned, with or without humans in the equation. Humans just made that rule more evident.

A few blocks away from the bus they found a group of normal looking people fighting off a big group of zombies. Nothing out of this world, just sixty or so undead. The problem was the sound they were making and the guns they were firing. They were sure to attract most of the zombie population in an area of at least 20 blocks, which could be anywhere from a couple hundred to a thousand zombies.

Ryo looked at them more attentively, focusing his sight, and realized there were both men and women fighting, and they all looked relatively healthy.

"They seem good, let's go" Ryo gave the order and dashed towards the group of zombies. Using RH-15 as a polearm, he got rid of them very quickly.

The people, seeing how he decapitated tens of zombies with such ease, felt amazed and scared. They had never seen someone so brutal and strong. Still, he had helped them, so they wanted to show gratitude. One of them, though, kept his guard up. When Ryo realized that, he smirked.

"At least one of you acts accordingly" He said out loud while looking at the one that hadn't holstered his gun. He had a shotgun and it could deal quite a lot of damage. Seeing Ryo's joking tone and smirk, he relaxed a bit. He looked at Ryo before talking. "Who are you and why are you here?"

"We come from Tokonosu City, escaping from a horde we ended up here" Ryo explained shortly while pointing to his group with a finger. He didn't have to give much more information. He finished off with an ultimatum of sorts. "You should run away from here. With so many shots, at least a thousand zombies are heading this way"

One of the women in that group looked at Ryo with hope and thought that he might be helping them, but his next words crushed those hopes.

"Now go fast, we'll go in another direction" where the words he said while turning his back on them. The woman that looked at him shouted. "Wait! Can't you help us?!"

"I can, but I won't. I don't know you and I can't take responsibility for your lives" he said while looking at her coldly. His priority was gathering vehicles in the airport, not helping randoms. But the woman didn't want to give up. "Please! Just until we reach somewhere safe and then you'll never see us again!"

"Ugh! I said..." he stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Yuriko, smiling warmly at him. She understood why he was denying them the help, but she also knew what he really wanted. "Ryo, we can help them. They don't have to be your responsibility afterwards. It's just help"

With a heavy sigh and slumped shoulder, Ryo just turned to the other group an said a short sentence.

"You can follow us"

-----------------------------------

Been a while since the last mini-arc, hadn't it? What will this group of survivors do? Are they good? Are they secretly evil? Are they lying and want to steal their supplies and weapons? We'll know in the next chapter of ES: HOTD!