Lee Seng turned to look at Manny who was in the middle of stifling his laughs. Lee Seng bit his lip and slapped his arm before turning to look at Noah, who was in the middle of processing what the hell just happened.
"Come on, let's go before I actually start to feel embarrassed." Lee Seng said. Manny removed his hand and grabbed his tray of food. He was beaming a smile that Lee Seng wanted to knock off, but decided not to. The two moved over towards Olivia who had moved further away from the situation. She handed Lee Seng his messy tray and the three moved to the table with their friends.
"Hold up!" Noah shouted. Lee Seng stopped and turned.
'This guy isn't done, yet?' Lee Seng thought.
"What?" Lee Seng asked. Noah faced Lee Seng with a tight fist. Noah looked pissed and was trying to hold it in.
"Your punishment will be tomorrow's event." Noah his thumb at his neck and then slowly raked it across his neck. He turned and walked out of the cafeteria. Lee Seng sighed and the silence of the cafeteria made him realize people were staring. He turned and looked around and the students sitting all around him, quickly and gradually began to talk again.
Lee Seng, Manny and Olivia sat around the table. Ritsuka and Evan gave Lee Seng a worried look while Liz simply leaned forward and stared at Manny, who had sat across from her. Lee Seng grabbed some napkins and started to scoot the porridge and water off to the side. Zoe's correct observation of him, bothered him.
'Do I really just show what I'm feeling?' Lee Seng thought. Her words echoed in Lee Seng's head.
"Control that temper!" Zoe's voice rang. Lee Seng sighed and realized he was aggressively scooting and dabbing at the spilt porridge and water. The whole table watched him with careful eyes. Lee Seng sighed and shook his head. He left the napkin in the spilled pile and grabbed the spoon and began to eat.
The sounds of students talking in the cafeteria grew louder.
"So, you were helping Lee Seng out?" Liz asked Manny.
"Yup," Manny answered with his mouth full. He swallowed and wiped his mouth with his hand. "Lee Seng wasn't feeling well. If you couldn't, uh, piece that together from what they've all said and what just happened with Greenhorn."
"Are you feeling better, Lee Seng?" Evan asked. Lee Seng looked up, spoonful of porridge in his mouth. He pulled the spoon out and swallowed.
"Yeah, I'm fine. My chest is really sore." He spooned another scoop of porridge into his mouth.
"How bad was it? Callas said something about you having a hard time breathing and you looked like you were gonna pass out." Ritsuka immediately asked.
"Ritsuka!" Olivia shouted.
"What? I just wanna... know." Ritsuka's voice shrank. Lee Seng took a sip of water and brushed it off.
"I passed out for a couple hours in my bed. I remember my chest wanting to split open. I don't remember much of the daze while I was asleep." Lee Seng answered.
"Ah," Ritsuka leaned back into his chair. "You're still sore then?"
"Mmm." Lee Seng spooned another scoop of porridge into his mouth.
"Eat slow, dude." Manny said with a mouthful of food, poking at Lee Seng. Lee Seng nodded and swirled his porridge. The clockwise motion always helped him focus his mind when he needed it most.
"So, what do you think tomorrow's hell activity is?" Ritsuka asked.
"Getting out of a zombie infested city was already hard enough." Olivia waved.
"Was it hard? It was literally straight forward. You walk in a cardinal direction and you'll eventually find a wall to get out."
"Says the guy who literally got out in an two and a half hours."
"You got out in two and a half hours?" Lee Seng looked up. Ritsuka nodded and Olivia was already rolling her eyes. She stood up and leaned into the table, pointing at Ritsuka while looking at Lee Seng.
"We all got put near the center of the city and Ritsuka says he could've gotten a better time if it weren't for the Spikes and Jumpers in the way." Olivia recited. She folded her arms together and shook her head.
"The audacity." Ritsuka mouthed. He chuckled as Evan shook his head.
"I barely got out of there in time. I was one of the last few people in the city. I ran into a huge problem at one of the gates. Somebody set an elaborate trap and if it weren't for my power, I would've easily been pinned under all that rubble." Evan sighed. Lee Seng nodded and then nodded at Olivia.
"How long did it take you to get out, then?" Lee Seng asked.
"Hahaha," Ritsuka laughed. Olivia quickly looked over at Ritsuka who pointed up towards Olivia. "She complains I got out in two and a half hours, but she managed to get out right after me."
"I-I didn't get out RIGHT after you!" Olivia protested. She planted herself back in her seat and Lee Seng smiled with a spoonful of porridge in his mouth. He had managed to finish the first bowl and was slowly getting through the second one.
"Yeah, your reason was... what, again?"
"S-shut up!" Olivia barked. Ritsuka smiled and then turned to look at Lee Seng.
"She wasn't used to running through a city." Ritsuka informed Lee Seng.
"Hey, shut up!" Olivia threw her spoon at Ritsuka. The spoon hit Ritsuka's shirt and clattered onto the floor. Lee Seng chuckled as he tried to hide it. Lee Seng grabbed his chest as he tried to stop himself from laughing.
"Stop it." Lee Seng chuckled. "It hurts to laugh." Manny smiled as he leaned back in his chair. Liz noticed Manny was watching Lee Seng laugh and the small smile had made her smile. Lee Seng slowly calmed down his laughs and took a sip from his second cup of water.
"Oh, what about you, Lee Seng? Did you make it out?" Evan asked.
"Ahh, I forgot to ask since I was teasing Olivia." Ritsuka snapped his fingers.
"Yeah, how did you do?" Olivia asked, glossing over Ritsuka's comment. Lee Seng wiped his face and set the napkin to the side.
"Well...." Lee Seng dragged on. "How do I explain this?"
"W-wait, don't tell me you didn't--" Evan began.
"Nonononono!" Lee Seng waved his hands in the air. "I managed to pass in the end, but it took me longer than expected. I was hopping the neighborhood buildings and crossed a four-way intersection, only to trigger a metallic net that brought me a muscular zombie."
"A Rebirth zombie." Manny corrected.
"Yeah, that." Lee Seng pointed. "The Rebirth was quite tough. I couldn't blow it away with my gravity blasts, so I had to get crafty. Let's just say I managed to do it and it decided to do that thing."
"The Rebirth explosion." Manny interjected.
"A sea of flesh and muscles flew at me. I ran at least four city blocks before I decided to attack it." Lee Seng continued. "Which was a bad idea because Rebirth zombies can apparently have their explosions split into many different strands of fleshy tentacles like hydras. It grabbed me and I..."
'I should skip that part. I go into Limbo and I really can't explain that to anyone. They'll think its weird.' Lee Seng thought.
"I managed to kill it off and ended up wandering for a long time. Next thing I knew, I was popping out of this huge skyscraper business building and its been a couple of hours since the incident. Other than that, I found cars piled up and went through it."
"YOU WENT THROUGH THE CAR WALL?" Ritsuka asked.
"Mmm, why?"
"Well... I went that way but when I saw the car wall, I just decided to take a detour."
"Ahh, so that dead Jumper was you then."
"Mmmhm, that was me!"
"Let him continue." Olivia waved.
"Anyways, I forced through the wall, found an intelligent tentacle zombie lady and fought her. I don't know how I beat her and that led to me getting DME (Dark Matter Exhaust). I couldn't move for awhile and next thing I knew, it was almost noon and I booked it for the huge gate in the distance."
"Wait, so when did you chest start hurting then?" Manny asked. Lee Seng turned to look at Manny munching on the last bits of his fries and turned to look at everyone else who was nodding.
"I guess because of the battle with the tentacle zombie lady, my chest started to hurt from the amount of power I used as well as her attacks. I had to run from a horde of zombies, attempt to dodge the traps set and stay alive from Rebirths on my ass and Jumpers trying to literally kick me. I ended up getting hit by Spikes and almost getting surrounded. I managed to get out and my chest was really hurting after the Spike hits so I went to my room." Lee Seng finished his story and downed the rest of the water.
"You got hit by Spikes and didn't go immediately to the hospital?" Evan asked. "You're crazy for even attempting that."
"Mmm, that's what everyone tells me." Lee Seng nodded. "What matters is I'm fine now and Manny took me to see his dad."