Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Kaysi - 

I understand what you're trying to say. If you want to use me as bait, I am more than willing to make something happen. I said it, but I wasn't confident in my words.

Are you sure that will be a good idea? You're a little beat up, Kaysi. Becky said, with sadness in her eyes. I believe that she knew that they didn't have too many options. 

We all are, and at this present time, we don't have much of a choice. If you guys stay far enough away from me that he doesn't catch on but close enough that if something terrible happens, you guys can be right there, and I should be fine. 

Thank you for your sacrifice for my village, Calian said. "I will be the first on the front lines to protect you. Most of you have already been beaten up for trying your best to save my village, and we still have a long way to go. 

She would have accompanied us, but we left Becky and Josh in the neighboring woods. Becky stayed back to care for his injuries. We're hoping that Josh can recover before the actual conflict starts. He won't be able to fight or anything, but at least doing this would prolong his life as we attempt to get Evan back.

"The first part of our plan was to locate Evan and draw him out while trying to stay undetected by the rest of the villagers," Duke said. 

"Everyone here seems to be zombified; the monkey demon's effects must have gotten to them all. If there are any survivors, I'm sure they're well hidden somewhere." Calian said as he looked out at the people walking around by the bonfire circle. 

"If any of them got trapped when this happened and they hid inside the village, do you know where they might be? Micah asked out of curiosity." 

-Just then, we heard the cry of a small baby come from one of the nearby basement cellars.-

"Normally, I would run headfirst, but unless that baby gets any louder, they have not attracted the villagers' attention. But we must find a way to get to the people immediately, Calian." 

Micah chuckled, "Thank you, Kaysi, for showing some restraint; I know it must not have been easy for you." 

The cellar is accessible from the main kitchen mess hall. Once we get in, we can navigate the passage that descends into the underground cellar. We built it like that for natural cold storage from the chops the kitchen uses to feed the people. 

Baby looked at Calian and said, "You can lead the way; we will follow you. As of right now, I think we should all stay in a group; there are only a few of us and many of them. But we need to move quickly before the child attracts any attention." 

When we arrived at the village's outskirts, we feared that the child's cries had attracted considerable attention to the kitchen. According to what we saw, roughly four locals were attempting to find out how to get into the building. 

"They must have the doors locked. How are we going to get in to save the child and other people that may be down there? 

"I have a key, Cailian said. Thanks to my grandmother, I have six keys to many of the buildings around here." 

"So what are we to do? Are we going to fight them and then go in?" I said with uneasiness. "I don't think that would be a great idea." 

"Actually, I have an idea," Micah said as she pulled out her tessen war fan. 

She blew one long puff of air toward the woods behind the villagers. It traveled down and through the woods, making it sound as though somebody rushed past them. It worked; it caught the villagers' attention, and they left quickly to chase after what they thought were potential people. 

"Let's move out quickly before they return, or that baby cry becomes any louder than it is now and attracts more attention." 

When we reached the root cellar, we found a mother and child. There were also what looked like a couple of other young villagers. They all seemed very frightened. 

"We are not here to hurt you. We have not been infected like the rest of the villagers. We heard the cries of your child, and we came here to relocate you somewhere safer outside the village. Before they come after you." 

"I am sad my brother was one of the locals; he was attacked before we arrived here. These other folks are my neighbors, and they helped me get here. I'm sorry my kid cries a lot while she's awake since her father passed away in the war. Usually, my brother comforts her. Also, I am sure it doesn't help I am a first-time mother. She explained that she was bouncing and rocking the baby to quiet it down. 

"We have tried as well to soothe the child." The neighbors said.

"Here, give me the child. Micah said as she grabbed the baby. I flipped her over to her back." 

"Be careful with my child," the mother said, concerned. "Aren't you a little young to be handling..."

BURP... The baby let out a sigh as Micah turned her around. 

"Micah held her in her arms and looked at her. "There now, do you feel better?" The baby looked at Micah and cooed. "Here you go," Micah said as she returned the child to its mother. 

"How did you know what to do? You are very good with babies." The mother replied.

"I help my uncle volunteer at the orphanage occasionally, and I ran into a couple of gassy babies.

She sounded like she needed to let one rip." 

"Thank you so much. I will make a note of this. My daughter is only three months old. Her name is Faith, and I am Adageyudi; it means love." 

"That is cute. Well, it's time for us to head out before we attract any more unwanted attention. 

When we got to the kitchen doors, we looked out the window before leaving to ensure the coast was clear. Unfortunately, the villagers we had chased off before had returned, and there were more with them this time. 

"That village there the woman said, pointing; that is my brother. Somewhere in his subconscious, even though this disease rules him, a part of him must still be trying to get to us. 

"I don't know what's causing this disease officially, but we have an idea. But we're going to do our best to save your brother and the other villagers. In the meantime, we may have to fight him; that seems the only way out of here. We promise not to cause permanent damages, but he may get roughed up a little." 

"Please do your best not to harm him. Also, where are we to go from here?" 

"We are relocating you to the emergency shelter. It'll be much safer. There is something like a panic room that has food storage, and it's reinforced," Cailian said as he patted the lady's back. We will protect your brother. Now, we would like you to stay put until we knock them out. " 

"There's enough of us here; if we work together, we can take them all out individually. The numbers are equal, from them to us," Duke said, pulling his guns out of his holsters and spun them. 

"Don't you think that's a little bit too much force?" James said 

"We were going to protect them, not kill them," Micah argued.

"Micah, please have more faith in me. I am an angel; after all, we are not to harm humans. I have tranquilizers in these guns." 

"Well, in that case, by all means, you should go first." Micah chuckled.

"Not necessarily. If you guys are in a predicament, I have to use this, but you have to think the sound of a gunshot will attract more attention. So, this is more or less a last resort. I'll be on standby and watch out for the surviving villagers." 

"I think we should get moving before more villagers get here," James said. 

For the most part, we were doing reasonably well; we knocked out seven villagers. "Wait, there were eight of them standing here. Where is that last villager?" I asked, looking around, staring back and forth, trying to pick up where he could have gone. 

"Damn it, Micah, watch out. With its mouth open, a ravenous villager sprung into the air; it was tempting to bite Micha on the shoulder. 

Bang!!! Duke shot the tranquilizer, and it pierced the man's neck. That had to be a powerful tranquilizer. As he hit the ground, the man was immediately put to sleep.

"We originally thought the virus was airborne. Which it very well still could be, but was he biting her to attempt to infect her?" I asked.

"I'm not 100% sure we should act as though they can. We need to get the rest of the villagers out of here immediately into the emergency shelter; that gunshot is sure to attract the rest of the infected people." 

Adageyudi came rushing out of her hiding spot. "You shot my brother. I thought you said that you wouldn't do any harm to them." 

"No, ma'am, we didn't. This here is a tranquilizer gun. It simply put him to sleep. He's very much alive and breathing." 

"Oh, that is good; you had me a little scared there." 

"We were very careful, so don't you worry." 

Cailian because he knew where everything was and the quickest way to the emergency shelter nearby. Occasionally, an infected villager would pop up, and we knocked them down. Most of the villagers were deeper inside the village, and our location and the emergency shelter were on the outskirts. 

"The emergency shelter should be around the corner and up this hill. That's not far left for us to go; we have to keep running a little bit more," Calian said, speaking to the rest of our group as we ran. " 

"It's a good thing the shelter is close. Because here comes the Infected," Micah yelled to the rest of the group. 

The female neighbor fell as we started to run up the hill. "It's okay, go on without me!" 

"No way, not happening on my watch!" Micah exclaimed as she turned around. She and James lifted the girl into their arms and hoisted her arms over their shoulders.

"I twisted my ankle. I'm only going to slow you guys down." 

"That's why James and I are going to bury your weight; you just try to help us the best you can." 

Once we finally got up the hill to the emergency shelter, all hope was lost. We saw that the other half of the village's infected people were surrounding the building standing before us. And there, in the middle of the group, was Evan!