14 Episode 2.5: Toward Muffin city

Arnold together with Stella and Sylva got off the jeep, while from the car the military clothes wearing women and the handsome beady man stepped out.

They all came out simultaneously!

The five people rushed towards the warehouse.

Arnold was holding the weeping Sylva, while his right hand covered his mouth.

Stella and the military women stood on a lookout while holding a silencer-attached gun in their hands.

The beady man tried opening up the locked gate of the warehouse, with his automatic handheld Iron Chain Saw.

He used his automatic Chain Saw to destroy the iron locks of the shutter and pushed it up but it didn't open.

"Damn this shit"

He cursed out loud while kicking the iron shutter.

"Calm down, do you wanna attract those motherfc*kers?"

The woman slapped his head, which caused him to almost be impaled by the running Saw.

"Darci, what the hell, you almost killed me" he retorted.

"We will definitely die if this gate isn't opened up by the time the undead surround us!" reprimanded the women called Darci.

"I might as well cut this shit open" Shouted jody and tried to cut the door itself using the saw, but Arnold halted him.

"Jody, This is an electric powered shutter, if we force it open, an alarm will set off."

"Arnold, if we don't rush than the zombies will still find us"

"Hold him for a while, I will open it up," Arnold said as he passed the sobbing Sylva to Jody.

Jody harshly pressed his hand on Sylva mouth, stopping his breath and laughed at him.

Sadly Arnold couldn't see that as he was busy.

He took out his Military device S-25, and a holographic screen opened up.

He pressed on the screen and a verification thumb scan appeared on the screen.

He put his thumb on the middle of his smartphone, and the holographic screen changed to a radar.

In the radar, the electric shutter system was shown.

Arnold connected his smartphone with the electric shutter and a control panel appeared on the screen, showing two words *Close* and *Open*

He pressed open and the shutter started moving up.

Everyone rushed inside the warehouse, with vigilance, and turned on the warehouse lights.

They walked around the warehouse, watching each corner with wariness.

After confirming that there is no zombie inside the warehouse, Arnold pressed the close word that appeared on the holographic screen.

The warehouse door closed down, inside the warehouse the 4 people finally calmed down.

Jody let go of Sylva, who started crying loudly, because of the death of his parents and the abuse he just suffered.

His cries worked up the military clothes wearing women.

She slapped towards him.

Before her hands could even reach the boy it was stopped by Arnold.

"Darci, calm down the boy is not at fault"

"Goddamn, General Arnold, we aren't a child caring center or an orphanage how many children are we gonna take care of? its an apocalypse for god's sake!" She said pointing at Stella and sylva.

"Come on Darci‚ he is my nephew, the son of my brother and his parents just sacrificed themselves for us"

Her word angered Arnold, who Shouted back at her.

Darci storms toward the second floor of the warehouse while shrugging and jody followed behind.

Stella holding her silencer attached pistol, moved towards her weeping cousin.

"Don't cry! Sylva, don't cry" she caressed him.

"Sister sob* hick* hick* mommy daddy they sob sob" Sylva muttered while hugging her and started crying even louder.

"You know what? Uncle Dylan and aunty Misha, chose this path to keep us alive, To keep you alive! Do you want their life to be sacrificed for nothing? Do you want to squander their love for you?"

Stella angrily said as she pushed sylva away.

"The apocalypse is cruel and there's no place for the weak.

Either you take this gun and fight back and live your life for uncle and aunty sake or shoot your head and kill yourself.

While killing yourself will be the easiest, the most cowardly and the most disgraceful path out of this"

Stella put the gun near sylva and went away after saying a lot of harsh words.

Arnold heard his daughter cruel words.

He knew what she did and hence didn't comfort the boy, rather went after her.

Arnold saw Stella sitting on the ground, tears streaming down her dust smeared face.

He placed his hand on her shoulder and sat near her. Stella quickly dried her tears.

"Father I am so cruel! I wish mother would have eaten me instead of little brother. I wish she would have devoured me so I wouldn't know that I was this cruel!"

"She wasn't your mother but a freaking zombie, a monster walking the land of the living‚ and what do you mean by cruel? Do you think daddy didn't see you taking out all the bullets from the pistol, before passing it to Sylva?"

Arnold embraced Stella, covering her with fatherly warmth, causing her to finally break down in tears.

"The bad and sad times will pass away," Arnold said while caressing her head.

Stella fell asleep! While sylva took the gun and looked at it deeply and finally decided to not shoot himself.

Tired of this roller coaster ride of life, the children couldn't hold on to their consciousness, as they fell asleep.

While the adults started talking together!

"Damn we don't have enough fuel to reach City C," Annoyedly said jody.

City C was announced as a safe zone in the news, which they hard through the radio.

"Captain! Most of our fuel barrel were inside the truck, that Dylan and Misha blew up"

Shouted Darci, while looking at Arnold as if accusing him.

"Calm down," Arnold said, as he pulled out his smartphone and opened the holographic screen.

The screen showed multiple cities with different names, colored Red, gray, and green.

"Why are these cities colored?" Asked jody

"To tell whether they are infected or not, This was released by the UWG(United world government) after acquiring information through personals scattered in the various cities and using satellites.

Red-colored cities have a high rate of death and an uncountable number of zombies.

Gray-colored cities have at least 50% of humans alive in the city, waiting to be rescued.

While Green meant a safe spot not hit by the calamity or infected by the Z(zombie)-virus" explained Arnold.

"Let's continue on the main topic, See this?" Arnold pointed at a red-colored city.

His action zoomed into the city.

The screen showed multiple districts of the city and also different hospitals, supermarkets, etc.

The name of the city said "Muffin".

"Captain! You don't mean to tell us, that we will be going to this city, right?"

Said Darci stunned by his suicide plan.

"I surely do, we don't have enough fuel to travel anywhere else. This is the nearest city from our location"

"But Arnold, it's infected with zombies!" exclaimed jody.

"We won't be going deep inside the city. There's a huge supermarket located near the outskirts of this city. We will only go there, get necessary supplies and be on our way"

He explained his plan to Darci and Jody who attentively listened to him.

Arnold was not merely his children's caretaker but a high-level personnel belonging to the army!

He has the highest authority and fighting capability in this small group of 5 humans.

Even Darcy didn't know what his rank was, but she at least knew that the military device S-25 Tactical edition was only assigned to high-level military personnel.

After extensive planning, they decided to head towards Muffin city, which they will reach in a day, by taking detours.

They decided to head out right after the sunrise.

Since the zombie could see in absolute darkness but not humans.

They went off to enjoy a good night of rest and sleep.

2025 - Month May - Day 20 End