"Welcome back, Brother!"
Looking deep into his eyes, I then smiled as I observed both the pain and the happiness he has been through. And the relief that he felt when looking at me. It was as if he had been holding it all in and acting brave for so long and was about to break, but now that I have appeared in front of him, he can finally let go.
And just like I thought, he ran towards me as he hugged me tightly and began crying more and more loudly. His sister looked at his brother crying with tear stained and worry filled eyes while I gently patted his head.
"They are here," spoke George as he looked around. His eyes turned red as he created a weapon out of his blood.
-TZZZZZ!!!
The chainsaw of Irene expanded twice its size as she looked around with a serious face, while I could see Miya looking at me with a surprised expression as she observed Alex carefully.
With a face filled with questions, she observed me as her eyes couldn't help but concentrate on Alex and turned a bit yellow. Though as she did that, it only made her more flabbergasted. Slowly she began moving towards me as she asked,
"Can I heal him?"
I looked at her for a few moments as I spoke in a bit of a quiet voice,"It's all right. He is fine now," and she hesitatingly nodded at me as she looked around and spoke,"then I will help them."
I didn't stop her as I helped the crying Alex in my arms, while turning around looking at the military guy concentrating on me and the others with a horrified look.
"A-Grades…" his words expressed his shock as he traced all of us, before he fixed his eyes on me.
"Alex. Can you wait for a few moments? Let me deal with them first," I spoke in a light voice as he looked at me with a slight question filled eyes.
"Don't worry. It will be over in a few seconds," I spoke with a smile and looking at my expression, he nodded before he looked at his sister, Erika, as he called her towards him. Erika, noticing his brother calling her, ran towards him with the torn teddy in her hands while I turned to that military guy.
"Now then. What should we do with you guys?" I spoke as I traced them one by one, though shockingly enough, I found a familiar face standing among them. Not one, but two.
"Myla?!" I questioned as I looked at her, making everyone turn at her, including George and Alex, as they observed her.
"Uh… Hi… Michael," she spoke with a bit of a complex face as I looked at her status,
[Inspect!]
[Name: Myla Keith
Race: Zombified Human (B-Grade)
Class: Sharpshooter
Description: A Military Sergeant, who has seen the best and the worst of humanity with her own two eyes and has developed her own twisted ideals. Her life has been a total roller coaster, from being a goody two shoes, to a subject of her father's ideals, to being chased by terrorists, and subject to multiple kidnapping sessions, her life has been anything but simple.
She has been living in the hope of finding her reasons to live, with Michael Aroa being one of them. Though she isn't too sure if she could trust this high school crush of hers, she is still waiting for the time when she could completely trust her feelings and tell him everything that had happened to her.
Her life had been…
Zombification: 2%[Reach 100% to get to the next Grade]
Cessation Energy: 5,000,000/5,000,000
Status: Healthy
Gift: None
Skills*
Strength: 1021(+94)
Constitution: 1361
Dexterity: 1045(+78)
Intelligence: 1230
Wisdom: 897]
My eyes then traced that guy at the front, before I asked,"What is your name?" "You are Michael… Aroa?!" He spoke as he looked at me with his widening as he came to a realization. He looked at me with a strange gaze as he spoke again,
"I have heard about you…"
His eyes then looked at me with a complicated look as he calculated something before speaking as his eyes turned red,"let them go. They had nothing to do with this. I was the one who took charge here."
I wondered what was going in that mind of his, to reach that conclusion. Perhaps he had thought of something? Though…
"Now those things involve Myla, along with the fact that you know me…. I don't think I can let you guys leave. I am sorry, but your departure has been canceled… indefinitely," I spoke before looking at the Nightcrawlers coming from behind the military people.
"Miya," I called her out and she, understanding my words, started chanting in her own language before a certain green fire started forming around her. That fire then took the form of a bird that flew past us and then reached those Nightcrawlers and burned them down to ashes before they could even react.
Nonchalantly, I ignored the faces of the already shocked military people, and looked around for a few moments at each of the people present.
'Okay… I don't think there is anyone here right now that can fight against me,' I confirmed before pondering if I should use [Second Space] or not. While I do want to sit and talk properly, I kind of wanted to keep my secrets to myself.
Sighing, I then decided against it. Maybe we can think about Miya, George and the others, but including the military and letting them know my secrets isn't something I should do right now.
Then what?
'Hmmmm…'
While I was thinking, I saw George brilliantly manipulating his blood to form into threads before spreading them out, killing all the NightCrawlers without much effort at all. All the while jumping into the fray as he jumped from one thread to another and cut down each zombie, which looked a bit stronger than the others.
What was even more baffling was that he was controlling threads' movements consciously as he jumped from one point to another at an extreme speed.
As for Walter, he was simply creating thousands of arrows in the air, aiming at the zombie, while creating vines from the ground, restricting their movements as much as possible. Even the zombies at the very far weren't able to move even a muscle as he cut them down.
-TZZZZZZZZ!
And then there was our little rampaging monster, Irene, who was using her superior physical abilities and combining with the mighty chainsaw she cut down everything in her way.
Honestly, it was a one sided massacre as I simply watched them clearing all the zombies until there were no zombies in the vicinity. Seems like there was really no need for me to think about moving to the [Second Space].
"Alex," I patted his head as I looked at his sister, peeking at me behind his brother, and said,"how the heck she grew up so much?"
If not for the System, I would have never believed it was the same girl who was being carried in Alex's arms from the time I met him. 6 months ago she was merely 1-year-old? And now she looked like a 6-year-old child. The heck happened to her?
"So you noticed, huh?" Alex spoke with a slight sigh as his usual composure returned while I saw him standing up before bringing her sister forward as he spoke,"You have already met her, but I don't think I have ever properly introduced her to you, brother. This is Erika Robert Fredrick, my little sister."
He then sighed as he looked around before continuing his story,
"Actually brother, after you vanished, I was there at the Libra building for some time. But then we received a piece of news that one of my uncles and his family living in this country is currently alive. While at first I thought of staying at the Libra a bit more, but looking at certain things, I decided to leave."
"Um. That was a fine decision. You should always know your priority. I am pretty sure you had a plan as well," I said as I had seen through his status that he isn't a simple kid at all.
He nodded as he continued,
"It took about 2 months to reach here. That was about a month ago. And when I reached here, surprisingly, the zombies were comparatively weaker than there were at Meria Country, so it was easy to travel.
While traveling, I made some companions that were okayish at first, but then after traveling for over a month, I trusted them a little more."
"Never trust people unless you really have seen their true colors. You never know what's in the heart of someone. Especially after the apocalypse," I spoke as I looked at him. If not for the [Inspect] Skill, I doubt I had trusted anyone, including the surrounding people.
Even now, I keep reading through the status of Walter and Irene, trying to see what they had been through in the last 6 months. It might be an invasion of privacy, but I would rather have that than be backstabbed.
"I understand, brother. But it wasn't them that betrayed us… the one who betrayed us… were my own f*cking family members," spoke Alex as his eyes turned red and his expression turned ashen. I could feel the energy rising around us before I patted his head as I spoke with a calming smile,
"It's all right. Let's solve everything one step at a time. So, where did it start?"
He looked at me with his face getting a bit more relaxed as he spoke,
"Well…"